Norton Honors DC Vote Executive Director with Congressional Record Entry
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today marked the 10th anniversary of Ilir Zherka's service as Executive Director of DC Vote by entering remarks in his honor into the Congressional Record recognizing his leadership in the fight to give the District of Columbia equal representation and rights in Congress. In her remarks, Norton said, "For 10 years, Ilir Zherka has been leading the fight for equal rights for the residents of the District of Columbia, within view of the U.S. Capitol. Ilir has visited the offices of many members of Congress. His leadership has been in the great tradition of citizens who have petitioned for their rights and engaged in citizen action, including time-honored civil disobedience."
Norton's remarks from the Congressional Record follow.
STATEMENT OF HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON
OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
THURSDAY, JUNE 21, 2012
Ms. Norton. Mr. Speaker,
I rise today to ask the House of Representatives to join me in recognizing Ilir Zherka, Executive Director of DC Vote, who has been the outstanding leader of District of Columbia residents in the fight for equal citizenship rights in our country. Ilir will celebrate his tenth anniversary as Executive Director of DC Vote on June 24, 2012. Ilir has built DC Vote in membership and in the use of a wide assortment of sophisticated tactics and approaches. Under Ilir's leadership, DC Vote has sustained itself for 10 years without interruption, thus ensuring the sustainability of a citizens movement here for the first time in decades. Ilir has been the major tactician of the movement, skillfully using approaches as varied as polling, lobbying, and civil disobedience.
Most recently, Ilir was the architect of unprecedented civil disobedience on the streets in front of the Senate and the White House last year, after Congress reimposed anti-home-rule riders on the D.C. appropriations bill, and after the District government barely avoided being shut down because of a federal budget fight in which the city was not involved. Ilir's own arrest was emblematic of the courageous leadership that he has given the movement.
Ilir's earlier leadership in the fight of D.C. residents for a full vote in the House brought the city the closest to success in its history. Ilir brought a wide variety of approaches to the voting rights struggle with mounting success. His valuable work behind the scenes in establishing contacts to help remove an amendment that tied passage of the D.C. House Voting Rights Act (DCVRA) to the elimination of the city's gun safety laws is not well known. Years of diligent and systematic work brought passage of the DCVRA in the House and Senate, only to be undercut by the dangerous gun amendment. This disappointment after many years of hard work would have caused many to move on. However, on the heels of the setback for voting rights, Ilir immediately turned to leading a new fight for D.C. budget autonomy and building an expanded national coalition to protect the District's home rule from an unprecedented series of attacks.
Ilir's aggressive creativity in building DC Vote has been matched by personal modesty, rare in a leader of a movement. Most who have worked with Ilir have been unaware that he was brought to this country as a child in an immigrant family from Montenegro, fleeing ethnic tension with Albanians. He rose from an underprivileged childhood in the South Bronx to attend college at Cornell University and law school at the University of Virginia. Ilir's work for justice before and during his leadership of DC Vote was chronicled in an April 2012 article in Washingtonian magazine, entitled "Taking It to the Street." I ask for unanimous consent to place the article in the record.
Mr. Speaker, for 10 years, Ilir Zherka has been leading the fight for equal rights for the residents of the District of Columbia, within view of the U.S. Capitol. Ilir has visited the offices of many Members. His leadership has been in the great tradition of citizens who have petitioned for their rights and engaged in citizen action, including time-honored civil disobedience. I ask the House to join me in commending Ilir Zherka for his outstanding leadership of the movement for equal citizenship rights for the more than 600,000 Americans who live in the nation's capital.
Published: June 25, 2012