Washington D.C.- Day 1 and part of Day 2

As the ambassador for D.C., I had begun to wonder what I had gotten myself into- taking responsibility for what is advertised as the center of American government and history. On top of that, I wanted to try and get a taste for what the actual identity of D.C. itself was as well as balancing the national history aspect of the city.

Our first stop was a visit with Representative Jim Cooper, the congressman for the district that Belmont is in. I had expected, having made this appointment months ago, that we would have at least half an hour to speak with Cooper, but unfortunately he had literally only 3 minutes to give us after we introduced ourselves. Though the visit was short-lived, I’m glad we got a somewhat behind-the-scenes look at political life in D.C.

At lunch, Rashina, Chris, Elisabeth, Shirah and I had an incredible experience meeting someone new, someone that I will remember as one of the best memories from this trip. I will elaborate on this encounter at a later date.

In the afternoon, we visited the Library of Congress and walked around the Mall a bit. At the Library of Congress, I was confused by some of their exhibits. On the one hand, some of their exhibits seemed to represent a thorough telling of history, the good, the bad and the ugly (though a lot more of the former than the two latter). But then in the same exhibit about the founding of our country, there was a plaque that insisted that America was founded on the principle that all people were created equal, no matter what race. I’m not sure how they justify this blatant misrepresentation of truth, but I was surprised to see such a bold, untrue statement in there.

Something that we all agreed on about the general feel of D.C., especially the fact that all the museums are easily accessible, free and open to the public, is that it held the right role for our nation’s capital. It allows the public easy access to knowledge and education about our history and there is little to no infringement of businesses or fast food places around the Mall area.

Early on our second day in D.C., we had a scheduled tour of the Capitol. I was under the impression that we would be getting a private tour, but alas, we were herded like sheep through the crowded public tour- listening with headphones to our live guide standing in front of us. All in all, I found it to be a beautiful, impressive building that was not particularly visitor-friendly at all.

For lunch, we took the train up to the U Street Corridor, which is a traditionally African-American neighborhood known as one of the birthplaces of jazz, and ate at the famous Ben’s Chili Bowl. This is a place that served as neutral middle-ground after riots ensued following the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I thought it was delicious and worth the wait in line that was out the door when we got there.


After lunch, we met up with a reporter for the Washington Post who interviewed a few of us for the Travel section, which was really exciting. We then visited the Holocaust Museum (which unfortunately, had sold out of tickets to the permanent exhibit for the day by the time we got there) where we able to see some really interesting temporary exhibits. Most of the group then headed over to the Smithsonian Museum of American History.

I felt that this museum was extremely important to visit on a trip examining American identity, because the Smithsonians are held up as the standard for history museums. So a museum in our nation’s capital telling the history of our country- I couldn’t pass this up. Unfortunately I was only able to stay for a couple of hours, but I found everything I saw absolutely fascinating. One of my favorite exhibits, which I thought was very well done, was about the American presidency.

It talked about how the current president is the center of our common political culture and is often seen as a heroic figure, at least to some. The president serves as a nation’s moral compass and a reflection of the national mood. One interesting part of the display spoke about how products have used presidential images in advertising because putting a picture of a president on your product communicates progress, optimism and achievement. Something that I had never considered about the unique role of an American president compared to other democratic leaders is that because America is viewed as a nation of immigrants with ties to countries all around the world, maintaining good diplomatic ties is even more important for our country. Another part of the exhibit talked about how seemingly trivial events that the president takes part in, like parades, visiting school classrooms and lighting the White House Christmas tree all serve the purpose of connecting him (/her) to the American people.

I thought it was really interesting that the only presidents profiled in this exhibit were those who were recent, assassinated, died in office, or involved in scandal. Some of the names on the presidency timeline I barely even recognized, much less could I tell you what they did while in office. Sarah Vowell in her book Assassination Vacation talks about that in reference to McKinley and Garfield- even though they were assassinated, so they received an exhibit in this museum, people hardly know a thing about what they accomplished while they were in office and their deaths are often overlooked in light of the assassinations of more charismatic presidents, like Lincoln or Kennedy. The role of an American president is much more complex than we often realize, which is what this exhibit really pointed out. Even those presidents who might not have accomplished anything great or memorable in office ought to deserve some credit- at least a place in our history lessons- for being elected and holding office at all.