Home from DC.
After spending a couple of days sightseeing on the mall in DC, I have a couple of observations. The first is there is something really cool about seeing the actual Constitution. It is on display at the National Archives. I didn’t think it would be that cool to see it. It seems like the kind of thing they make you do in grade school. ‘Today, kids we are going to see the Constitution.’ But it was not like that. Ok, it kind of was. But it still was really cool. I did want to run down the street a couple of blocks and let them know I found the Bill of Rights, if they were looking for it.
Second, in two days of hanging out around the national mall, I heard a couple of dozen languages. These included Russian, Spanish, Mandarin, French, at least two African dialects, a couple of Slovak and a handful I could not place. I am guessing most if not all of them visiting our country. They came to DC to see the Smithsonian and take their picture in front of the Capital. They all seemed in awe of this city, like they were walking around Camelot. We have missed that vision of ourselves.
Last, our government is obsessed with security currently, mostly its own. No, I am not just talking about the picture thing. In peoples day to day lives here in DC, government security is a reality that they live with. I was spoken to by five DC police officers in less then six hours spent on the mall. All of these conversations were started by DC police officers. All but one was them giving me information about where I was allowed to walk or things I was not allowed to do. Now think about that, I walked around the mall on the path twice and went to the Smithsonian and National Archives. These are not high danger activities.
This is all of DC that I can take. Right now, I am really happy that I am home.