WASHINGTON | With the recent election of President-elect Barack Obama, Eleanor Holmes Norton, the delegate for the District of Columbia, predicts that the passage of the D.C. Voting Rights Act will occur sometime next year.</p><p>Norton recently addressed the Trotter Group, the collection of black columnists from across the nation, on the subject of voting rights for the District of Columbia.</p><p>She said she would submit the legislation to Congress sometime in 2009 and was confident that it would finally gain passage in the House and the Senate.</p><p>Norton is allowed to speak from the House floor and to vote and serve on committees, but unlike a full representative, she is not permitted a legislative vote. As a result, she contends her constituents are denied their voting rights and representation.</p><p>Norton said she spoke with Obama months ago about the matter, and she said Obama was sympathetic to the issue of voting rights for the District of Columbia.</p><p>He should be. In the Senate, Obama is a co-sponsor of the legislation.</p><p>&#8220;The reason I&#8217;m looking forward to this next year is, not only do we have a president who I think instinctively understands, I think we now have a Congress which also believes the time has come for this city to cross over the divide and become a part of America like everybody else,&#8221; Norton said.</p><p>She pointed out that during World War I, the District of Columbia had more casualties than three states. In World War II, the district had more casualties than four states. And in the Korean War, the nation&#8217;s capital had more casualties than eight states.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;re paying our dues,&#8221; she said. &#8220;And last time I heard, those dues are owed the most basic rights of American citizenship. Think about the people who fought and died for their county without a vote.&#8221;</p><p>&#8226;&#8226;&#8226;</p><p>Hilary O. Shelton, director of the NAACP Washington bureau, has told the Trotter Group that his organization would strongly advocate congressional passage of universal health care.</p><p>Shelton noted that, while the No. 1 cause of death for black males 15 to 24 is gun violence, 85 percent of all gunshot victims who go to a hospital don&#8217;t have health-care coverage.</p><p>&#8220;That means only 15 percent have some form of coverage,&#8221; Shelton said. &#8220;Somebody has to pay for that emergency-room care. It ends up taxing us all.&#8221;</p><p>Shelton said the NAACP also believes the State Children&#8217;s Health Insurance Program, known as SCHIP, needs to be expanded so that more families across the nation are covered. The program gives funds to states to provide health insurance to families with children.</p><p>&#8220;When we have safe, secure and healthy families, then we will have healthy communities, too,&#8221; Shelton said.</p><p>&#8226;&#8226;&#8226;</p><p>Bobby Watson&#8217;s &#8220;Gates Bar-B-Q Suite,&#8221; a musical tribute to Gates Bar-B-Q, is finally ready for public consumption.</p><p>Watson, director of jazz studies at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and a popular local saxophonist, has written seven jazz tunes that he calls his Gates suite.</p><p>He plans to perform the music for the first time with his UMKC concert jazz band at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 1 at White Recital Hall at UMKC.</p><p>Watson named his songs &#8220;Heavy on the Sauce,&#8221; &#8220;Beef on Bun,&#8221; &#8220;May I Help You?&#8221; &#8220;Blues for Ollie,&#8221; &#8220;One Minute Too Late&#8221; and &#8220;President&#8217;s Tray.&#8221;</p><p>One of the songs is &#8220;Wilkes Bar-B-Q,&#8221; the name of an eatery run by Watson&#8217;s grandmother and grandfather in Merriam many years ago.</p><p>Ollie Gates provides a jazz heritage scholarship for a jazz musician at UMKC each year. Watson wanted to show his appreciation for that by paying homage to Gates.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;m musically trying to show my roots and appreciation for barbecue,&#8221; Watson said. &#8220;Three years ago, I told Mr. Gates that I was doing this. I was a finally able to finish it during my sabbatical.&#8221;