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By PAUL DELANEY
Staff Reporter 

Discovering a different side of Washington, D.C.

Write to the Point

 

Last updated 5/7/2015 at 3:38pm



Bring up Washington, D.C. these days and it can elicit, among others things, a gag reflex.

But that’s the D.C. we all know from the media who report the dysfunctional connection associated with the city that is central to virtually all things government in this nation.

Defining “the other Washington,” is an important distinction. Our Washington is arguably of course God’s Country, while that other Washington consists of massive monolithic structures, which, when you see them, certainly can become metaphors for this city being at the center of our political pit of quicksand.

In traveling back to Washington this past week for the wedding of the daughter of close friends, some of the downtime allowed discovery of a different D.C.

Not all of it helped change D.C.’s outward image, but it certainly was a worthwhile exercise in the old saying, “You learn something every day.”

One of the neat things was remembering that a family friend might have been on duty with the Capitol Police. A quick message confirmed Alan was on duty at the Reyburn House Office Building.

Our calculations of where the proper D.C. Metro subway stop for Capitol Hill were a bit off, but how could you go wrong exiting at Judiciary Square? Other than it allowed us to pass by the homeless shelter, ironically just a long block from a high-end Hyatt Regency hotel.

D.C. is quite a bit different than when it was the destination of a family cross-country car trip in 1994 to visit our friends whose daughter, then 9, was married in a rooftop ceremony May 2 in the DuPont Circle neighborhood.

But when a random gunman storms in a door to the Capitol killing two members of the police force, a terrorist flies a jetliner into the Pentagon, or someone successfully evades being shot down flying his gyrocopter, security tends to be enhanced.

Which made me wonder as I watched while two guys in a U-Haul tried unsuccessfully to convince guards to allow entrance on a closed street near the Capitol?

Our visit was simply intended to say hi to Alan and do a little catching up

But with nearly 15 years on the force assuring the safety of members of Congress, and his downhome Louisiana demeanor, we were able to breeze through check points and otherwise guarded doors with just a flash of his two fingers and a “They’re with me.”

Through the bowels (no pun intended) of the Capitol we walked, catching a quick glimpse of Washington Congressman Jim McDermott as he boarded an elevator.

And there was the Capitol clinic, fully staffed with a top Navy surgeon — just in case — but also the place, Alan said, where notable members of Congress like Speaker of the House John Boehner and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi have unlimited access to taxpayer funded Botox.

Four pretty full days in D.C. racked up an ungodly number of miles – walking between 7-10 a day — but among the best moments were those spent visiting monuments with our guide Henry from Big Bus Tours.

A native of Ocala, Fla., Henry is a huge heartfelt fan of history who gave us the incidental nuggets of knowledge from over nearly two-dozen stops on our double-decker bus’s route.

It was easier he told us for President Franklin Roosevelt to argue with Congress than it was with his wife Elanor over his appointment — at her insistence — of Francis Perkins as the first Secretary of Labor to become the first woman cabinet member.

And yes, no matter where you walk in the Korean War Memorial, one of the 19 faces of the statues looks at you.

But Henry’s most poignant moment came at the Martin Luther King Memorial at the west end of the National Mall. It was there he reflected on words King spoke in 1963, but were passed on to him by his dad long after King’s death in 1968.

Etched in the granite wall is the quote: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can; Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can.”

What made that saying so special was Henry’s mother and father were both career teachers, both had grown up in the truly segregated South and each had lived through, among other things, special water fountains, separate lunch counters and seats in the back of the bus.

And with that the tour concluded.

What we discovered at times was not what we expected in the place so much seemingly already defined in our minds.

Paul Delaney can be reached at pdelaney@cheneyfreepress.com.

 

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