The End of an Adventure

28 days in the District have come and gone, and what a special time it was. We read a lot of articles, shook hands with congresspeople and took many a tour. One of the last things we got to do was take a Moonlight Monument Tour on Wednesday night. Around 8:00 a woman named Wanda picked us up in a "party bus," a bus decked out on the inside with lots of lights, loud speakers and seats lining the walls. We picked up Jack, our professor, in Georgetown and we headed west across the Potomac into Arlington, where we stopped at the Marine Corps War Memorial. We got off the bus and sang the Marines' Hymn because Jack is a proud Marine veteran and he felt compelled to get us to do so.

After we left Arlington we went back into Washington and visited the US Capitol where Jack talked about the Statue of Freedom which stands atop the Capitol Dome. Thomas Crawford sculpted it out of bronze in 1863. Following our final visit to the Capitol, we rode two miles down Independence Avenue to see the Washington Monument in all its obelisk glory. Then we ventured over to the World War II Memorial, an especially picturesque sight under the moonlight. The last of four landmarks that line up directly with each other in Central Washington, we stopped at the Lincoln Memorial and spent a few minutes there, admiring Daniel Chester French's beautiful sculpture of Lincoln as well as his second inaugural address and the Gettysburg Address, carved on the north and south walls of the memorial chamber, respectively. Dr. Martin Luther King's magnificent memorial was next on our list and all of his quotes that line the walls surrounding his likeness really add to his calming effect. Across the Tidal Basin from the MLK Memorial is the iconic Thomas Jefferson Memorial, which was our next stop and the second-to-last on our list. With our Moonlight Monument Tour winding down, a few of us got off the bus to take one last look at Thomas Jefferson's enormous and dramatic representation before our time in Washington came to a close. The Jefferson Memorial is a sacred place, and with only a few visitors there at that hour, it was also a tranquil place. The steps of the Jefferson also offer one of the best views of the Washington Monument that the area has to offer, so we took that in for the final time as well. We rode back into town and over to Lafayette Square to exit the bus for our final stop: The White House. We walked through the Square and took a short look at the President's home before the police told us the Avenue (Pennsylvania Avenue) was closed for the night. From there we headed back over to George Washington University's Mount Vernon Campus, and called it a night. The Moonlight Monument Tour was very special.
It was a nice end to an amazing adventure.

The Holocaust - Voyage of the St. Louis

Washington, D.C. is home to one of the world's largest museums dedicated to remembering the victims of the Holocaust, one of the most horrific and devastating events in history. I had visited the museum once before at the age of ten, but this time I vowed to take the time to get the full effect of the experience. Instead of simply repeating how sad the Holocaust was without gaining a thorough understanding of it, I wanted to delve deeper into the machinations of the Nazi regime and the terror undergone by the Jews and others the Third Reich deemed "outcasts", so I would not be numb and desensitized to the disgraceful injustice that Hitler called "The Final Solution." On Tuesday that opportunity came, and I discovered just how many things they do not teach in school. A particular event about which I learned a lot is the Voyage of the St. Louis. It probably resonated more because of the United States' involvement in it (or lack thereof). In May 1939, a transatlantic ship called the St. Louis, full of Jews trying to escape Nazi Germany, left for Cuba. Many of these passengers intended to enter the United States eventually, and had applied for American visas. Upon arrival in Havana, however, only 28 passengers were permitted to disembark. Cuba, enduring its own internal problems and being influenced by antisemitic propaganda, denied the other 908 aboard the St. Louis entry. After some unsuccessful negotiations, Captain Gustav Schroeder decided to sail north to Miami. While nearing the Miami shores, some of the passengers tried to contact President Franklin Roosevelt, but he did not respond. Although American diplomats tried to intervene and convince the Cuban government to allow the passengers to enter, President Bru would not budge. American citizens claimed to be sympathetic to the refugees, but only about 17% actually wanted to let them in. Roosevelt could have signed an executive order to allow the refugees in despite the United States' satisfied immigrant quota, but he knew how harmful that might be to his second re-election. A few members of Congress made attempts to help the refugees by passing a bill, but the bill did not go through. After both the US and Cuba refused to have mercy on the distressed and once hopeful refugees, the ship returned to Europe, where the refugees were dispersed throughout Great Britain, France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Almost all of those who were admitted into Great Britain survived, while half of those in the other three countries were ultimately killed by the Nazis.

Many journalists wrote with sympathetic tones about the St. Louis' passengers not being allowed to disembark. Few urged the government to do something about it. That seems to be an accurate reflection of the general attitude of the US at the time. The US pretended to care but few wanted to take action. I cannot blame President Roosevelt and other US officials simply for not letting the refugees in. I do challenge their laissez-faire attitudes though. While I would like to believe that if Roosevelt knew what kind of horrors many of these refugees would ultimately endure, he would have cared more about helping them than being elected again, it is sad knowing that probably about 250 lives could have been saved and 700 more lives could have been improved. I can only hope that we learn from this despairing episode of the Holocaust.

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Source: https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005267

Evening Capitol Tour

Garret Graves (R-La.), who represents Louisiana's sixth congressional district, sometimes gives nighttime tours of the United States Capitol to his visiting constituents in Washington. Our group, along with some other visitors from Louisiana, had the opportunity to take part in one of these special tours, and it far exceeded expectations. Admittedly, having just been to the Capitol two days before, I thought we may be getting a repeat of the same thing. That notion proved to be entirely misguided, as Congressman Graves showed us places we otherwise certainly would not have seen. To begin, he let us walk onto a balcony off the Speaker's Lobby, where he pointed out many buildings in view and explained the history of the Washington skyline. When we returned inside, we sat in chairs on the House floor and learned about the history of the chamber and the deliberation process, and we were able to ask questions. We also stepped inside the Democratic cloak room to get a peek at what less formal discussions probably look like when congresspeople take a break.
Following our walkthrough of the cloak room, we went down to Statuary Hall and saw figures of many prominent Americans. One of the coolest parts of the trip, we walked through Majority Whip Steve Scalise's office and saw the Lincoln Room, where Abraham Lincoln is said to have had fireside chats. We then ventured to the Capitol rotunda and talked about some of the historic paintings and statues. The painting of George Washington resigning his commission as general is important because he had to do so to be eligible to be the president.

General George Washington Resigning His Commission¹

Another painting depicted the surrender of Lord Cornwallis. An interesting fact about that painting that I did not know is that Cornwallis felt that George Washington was not worthy of Cornwallis' surrender so Cornwallis sent lesser soldiers to surrender. Washington reciprocated by standing back and sending his lower men forward to accept the surrender.

Surrender of Lord Cornwallis²

Yet another impressive piece of art in the Capitol Rotunda is the Portrait Monument to Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, which was left unfinished to symbolize that the fight for women's rights was not over.

Before the last stop on our tour, The Crypt, we went down to see the real crypt where George Washington's remains were to be buried before his will revealed that he did not want to be entombed in the Capitol. He felt that it was kinglike and royalty was one of the principal things they had come to the United States to escape. He was also very attached to his home at Mount Vernon and wanted to be buried there with his wife Martha. Finally, we went up to The Crypt and learned a few facts about it before concluding our tour. We also rubbed our feet on the center of the city for good luck and then we parted ways after a truly enriching and informative experience for which I am very grateful to Congressman Graves and his staff.



1: https://www.aoc.gov/art/historic-rotunda-paintings/general-george-washington-resigning-his-commission
2: https://www.aoc.gov/art/historic-rotunda-paintings/surrender-lord-cornwallis

Ethics of Fake News

The ethics of fake news can be a quite polarizing topic. Many are entirely against spreading fake news intentionally, while some believe that an audience gullible enough to fall for outrageously fabricated information deserves to be deceived. I have found myself of the latter opinion before, but was that inconsistent with my belief about the ethicality of fake news? A concrete example of this fake news dilemma arose when Kam Harris wrote about fraudulent votes for Hillary Clinton found in an Ohio warehouse. I have a hard time shaking the belief that I have always had about that instance - Kam Harris was an independent journalist and he could publish any story, true or false, and feel ethically sound, unless it slandered or defamed innocent people. Additionally, I have felt that anyone who would be so careless to believe his story without checking its sources or considering critically all of the invented facets of it, ought to be fooled. This opinion so begs the question: Does a journalist have an obligation to his/her readership to publish only accurate news?

As damaging as fake news can be, I still believe that an independent journalist, who does not have to answer to any sort of supervisor, should be able to spread fake news and feel at peace with it ethically. If the people have a problem with it, then we should be responsible for recognizing it and not giving it undeserved attention. More clicks lead to more readers - the first readers must squash it. Although I would personally feel remorseful setting out to deceive, someone who is not writing for any news organization beyond his/her own self is not inherently unethical for writing fake news.

The Netherlands Carillon

An often overlooked historical landmark, the Netherlands Carillon lies just a few hundred feet west of the Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Virginia. I had some free time to venture that way, and although my destination was the aforementioned War Memorial, the towering carillon caught my eye. The front of the carillon simply reads, "From the People of the Netherlands to the People of the United States." Regretfully unaware of the significance of this gift, I sought to learn of its origin.

During World War II, the United States came to the aid of the Netherlands, especially in Operation Market Garden and Operation Aintree. Operation Market Garden, although largely unsuccessful, opened the door for liberation from German forces in the Netherlands. In Operation Aintree, the Americans and the British worked to rout other German forces west of the Meuse River. In addition to this aid on the battlefield, the United States helped the Netherlands recover after the war ended.¹²


As a result of the United States' brotherly support, the people of the Netherlands felt an extreme sense of gratitude. A Dutch government official named G.L. Verheul proposed the idea of a gift symbolizing friendship with the United States. Queen Juliana backed the proposal, and even travelled to the United States in 1952 to present President Truman with a small bell, which represented the greater gift to come. In 1954, some 49 bells arrived to supplement the original one and were placed in a tower before a permanent one was constructed adjacent to the Marine Corps War Memorial. In 1960, fifteen years after the Netherlands had been freed from the Nazis, an official dedication took place. Presently, American patriotic music can be heard coming from the Carillon twice daily (once on Sundays), and the Dutch National Anthem plays once a year on Dutch Liberation Day.³  Next time you find yourself in Arlington, take an extra minute to check out this special symbol of brotherhood.



1: http://www.pbs.org/thewar/detail_5222.htm
2: https://worldhistoryproject.org/1944/10/18/allied-forces-liberate-the-town-of-venray-battle-of-overloon
3: https://www.nps.gov/gwmp/learn/historyculture/netherlandscarillon.htm