We were up early (surprise!) and caught the subway to get
downtown DC. We needed help to figure
out the fare machines, even though everything is written in English, it still
didn’t make much sense as to what we needed to do. The metro went fine.
We arrived at union station, a couple blocks from the
Capital Building. Our first stop was the
Memorial to Japanese American Patriotism in World War II. With our continued interest in the injustice
around the Japanese-American internment during WWII by the American government,
this memorial was quite simply presented, but still very powerful. We realize that it wasn’t intended to be a
major educational opportunity. But sitting almost in sight of the Capital, it
was an important statement. The centerpiece
of the memorial was a sculpture of two cranes bound with barbed wired.
Next, we were headed over to the Capital for our scheduled
tour. We were both immediately struck by
the greatly increased security since the last time we each were in DC. Many roads on the Capital grounds were now barricaded.
And we saw a guard with an automatic rifle.
We chatted with one guard about the changes, and he had also been there
long enough to have observed continuing changes taking place.
We dwell on the security issue because we were caught up in
in when we attempted to enter the new visitor’s center with a backpack filled
with items we needed for our day in the city.
It turns out we had many items that were no allowed in including: bottled water, our lunch, sunscreen and insect
repellent, empty water bottles (which we tried by emptying them, but that
didn’t meet their requirements.) We
finally had to give up on the tour. 8:30
was too soon to ditch all of those items for the day. Sad that it has come to this. We noticed greater security elsewhere
throughout the city, but nothing like we saw at the Capital.
Plan B took us walking down Pennsylvania Avenue where we
went by the Newseum, a museum dedicated to news. We didn’t have time to go inside (and it was
pretty pricey for just a quick visit), but we became quite engrossed with an
outdoor feature that had front pages from newspapers every state plus a selection
from elsewhere in the world.
We were quite interested in the different priorities that
were reflected in what was presented on those front pages.
Further down the street, we came to The Old Post Office
Building, one of the tallest towers in the city. The National Park Service administers the
tower portion of this building, which houses such organizations as the National
Endowment for the Arts. We took the
elevator to the top flower and had the chance to view the nation’s capital from this unique
perspective. Our timing was perfect to
listen to a ranger talk. She explained
the history of the building and future plans for it.
We were then within a couple blocks of The Ford Theater
which Dick had never seen. This is, of
course, the theatre where Abraham Lincoln was shot only five days after the
surrender of the south in the Civil War.
We were able to attend a remarkable theatrical performance in the
theatre. The Park service ranger
appeared as a senior police official who as in attendance that night in
1865. He was splendid as he described
the events from a police and personal perspective. We had hoped to go across the street to the
building in which Lincoln had actually died, but it was clear that the wait to
enter that building was going to be far too long for our schedule. So we were off a couple of bocks to the
Archives of the United States.
The National Archives is the place where records, documents,
photos, tapes, and other documents are held. It often gets referred to as
“American’s Attic”, but must more accessible.
Especially moving was seeing the original Declaration of Independence
and Constitution of the US. We both
appreciated seeing parents bring their children to see these pieces of paper
that are so meaningful to our country.
The last stop of the day was the new Smithsonian Museum of
the American Indian. We had been looking
forward to seeing it as one of the newest museums on the mall. It was really fine. We were struck by the fact that this place
was clearly not laid out in a linear fashion, almost more like a mind map. There were many wonderful exhibits, including
one about origin stories and creation.
These were all presented by many different Indian nations and were
curated by members of those particular tribes.
It was not just national peoples in the US, but included groups
throughout all of the North and South America.
It was very ambitious and filled with beauty.
A highlight was lunch in their café. The café featured traditional Native America
food from many different regions and included things like palm heart salad,
cactus and mushrooms, Indian fry bread, wild rice, salmon, buffalo stew. It was one of the best meals we had on the
trip. We know that food is such an important
part of culture and we loved the idea of being able to actually eat some of
these wonderful dishes rather than just look at dioramas of people eating. Yum, yum, yum.
We caught the subway back to Silver Spring having walked
about ten miles today (according to our pedometer, so we are just exaggerating!) Then an easy drive up to Frederick Maryland
to position ourselves well for another intense day tomorrow.
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