I was going to talk about gay marriage next, but an unexpected experience in Washington has edged gay marriage out for the next posting. That and Larry Johnson.
No, plastic consumer-oriented reader, I don't mean we should go to the mall down the street. I know how you all like to get your corn dog on, and eat all the samples at the food court, and get your free mall makeovers, and see what's on sale at Banana Republic, and check out the cougars hitting the shoe sales. Theoretically.
I mean America's Mall. The Mall in Washington. You know, by the Washington Monument and the Smithsonian and the Lincoln Memorial. With the reflecting pool. Where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream" speech, where World War I vets camped to protest Depression-era policies, and where Vietnam War protestors staged their 1969 Moratorium protests. You know, L'Enfant's Grand Avenue. This has been described as the third most-visited place in America, behind the Las Vegas strip and Times Square.
Last Sunday, I had to go to Washington on business. My attitude about Washington is pretty dismal. L'Enfant planned it as a sparkling world capital. Now successive Marion Barrys and decades of Congressional neglect have turned it into Murderville. I could make a case that on balance, since the enactment of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Washington has produced more harm than good. So other than the Smithsonian, Washington's really never held any special appeal for me.
I arrived Sunday afternoon so I could meet my friends Carrie and Jeremy for dinner, and had enough time to go for a run before we were to meet. I had just enough daylight to go for a run on the Mall. It was so inspirational I had to post about it for all of you to consider.
Most notably, so many of the trees on the mall are bursting into radiant shades of gold, orange and red. These include American elms, maples, aspens, and cherries. The park is awash in brilliant colors now, magnified by the streaming sunset. I first headed west towards the sun and Arlington, passing first the Washington Monument then the Lincoln Memorial on the left, and a parade of Greek revival agency offices on my right. Constitution Avenue was somewhat bland, although the trees again added some color. When making the turn behind the Lincoln Memorial though, I saw the sun setting behind Arlington National Cemetery. It was gleaming over the Lee House, and across the Potomac the bright red trees bathed the entire area with a soft fall color.
Before heading back east along the Mall towards the Capitol, I stopped first at the Lincoln Memorial and then at the nearby Korean War Memorial. Hordes of tourists were streaming in and around the Lincoln Memorial. I saw people of all nationalities, wearing turbans, saris, and other non-American garb. All seemed transfixed at the Lincoln statue, while many stood on the steps and gazed out over the reflecting pool towards the Washington Monument. I thought of the words they could have read at the site and taken home. From Lincoln's Second Inaugural, "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations." Or from the Gettysburg Address: "that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." Quite a far cry from the fourth-grade level bickering that now passes for public discourse in this town.
To the memorial's left lies the new Korean War Memorial. This new memorial packs an emotional punch. It consists of a platoon of cloaked GI's in statue, walking a patrol against a granite wall. At the wall's end to which the soldiers are marching is inscribed the phrase "Freedom is Not Free." This eternal patrol by the gray soldiers leaves a haunting impression.
Further along the Mall heading east, I came first to the new World War II Memorial located at the opposite end of the reflecting pool, then the Washington Monument. On the way, the reflecting pool was on my left, while in the distance I could see the Jefferson Memorial on my right against the Tidal Basin. The World War II Memorial is an oval shaped granite row of linked columns or pillars surrounding a huge fountain. Though impressive, I think both the Korean and Vietnam War memorials eclipse it. I moved on past it to the Washington Monument, which by this hour was splashed with sunlight. Surrounded by American flags, it made for a uniquely patriotic sight.
Moving further east past the Washington Monument, I passed the Smithsonian Castle, birthplace of the Smithsonian Museum. Then I moved on and passed the Hirschorn Museum and Air and Space Museum (where they keep the Wright Brothers plane and Apollo 11). Though the sun was sinking and cold air was setting in, crowds still walked along the Mall, playing frisbee and soccer, or just going for a Sunday evening walk.
As I continued east I faced the Capitol building, also bathed in the setting sun. I recalled how while in Buenos Aires, I saw the Presidential Palace (La Casa Rosada or Pink Palace) at the same hour of day, also lit up by the setting sun, and thought how much more magnificent our own Capitol shines in the sun. I also thought of all the statesmen who have shaped the course of world affairs for more than 200 years. We may be living through the end of Pax Americana and our government institutions may be turning into little more than a wealth transfer mechanism designed to buy votes, but the roll call of accomplished Americans who have served in that building dwarfs the losers currently occupying those seats. Clay, Webster, Houston, Bryan, Taft, LaFollette, and Johnson in the Senate. Rayburn, Jordan, Cannon and countless others in the House. The great moments occurring in and outside the Capitol also inspire. FDR's "date which will live in infamy" speech. MacArthur's "old soldiers just fade away" speech. Churchill's address during World War II. Kennedy's, Roosevelt's, and Lincoln's inaugurals. Mandela speaking to a joint session after his release from prison. These are men and women who made the modern world, and this occurred in that building. Hard to think about those moments and those people without then immediately thinking about the partisan wrangling over largesse that now dominates Congressional discourse, all while national literacy and health declines, the middle class shrinks, and manufacturing leaves the country.
That the Mall could have such an impact is even more astonishing because local news stories have complained about the Mall's disrepair and neglect Congress has shown in maintaining it. The place is so stunning that even in a shambles it can inspire.
Next-gay marriage. Really.
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