Martin Luther King Memorial Not the Only Misquote on the Mall

Washington and the nation still await the formal dedication of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, but that hasn’t stopped many of us from visiting the newest addition to the Mall. While critiquing new Memorials is a team sport in DC, reaction has been largely positive, and most of us find that the Memorial rounds out our nation’s civic space quite nicely.

However, one element has not been as well received. On my first visit, I was struck by the quote “ “I was a drum major for justice, peace and righteousness” on the side of the high relief statue of Martin Luther King. It was the only discordant note on an otherwise well done Memorial, and struck me as odd for a man who was as well spoken and filled with humility as Dr. King.

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It's Just Too Hard To Keep Fear Alive: The Resumption of Sanity

photo by Maria Helena CareyLet’s face it, it feels good to be scared. The warm rush of anger, the burst of camaraderie when you find others that feel as you do, the single-minded focus at being mad as hell, and just not taking it anymore. Sure, we’d all like to curl up in a warm blanket of fear and not have to get out of bed and put our feet on the cold floor of sanity.

But sooner or later, we all have to go to the bathroom, and tackle that cold floor. So it is with our nation. No matter how deep the abyss of fear is, we always manage to pull ourselves out sooner or later, and often with much pain. Cold comfort, perhaps, for those on the wrong side of hysteria, a sign of underlying resiliency in our national psyche.

And so, while my friend Robert’s fear-mongering tour of Washington, DC’s dreadful past showed the legacy of fear, eventually each of these stories were turned about, and we as a nation have become stronger for surmounting them. Let's take a look, shall we?

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A Day in DC: Taking in the Memorials

View Memorials to White House in a larger map

Some time ago, I sketched out a sample itinerary for a day in DC focused on Capitol Hill that combined a bit of the National stuff that you’ve come to see with a little of the local color that humanizes the experience and makes your visit more memorable. So in that vein, let’s lay out another day, taking in the Memorials in the morning and a little of DC the rest of the day.

We’ll kick off at the Foggy Bottom Metro Stop on the Orange and Blue lines. We got a lot of walking to do this morning, and I don’t know about you, but I can’t do it without a cup of coffee. DC has some top notch coffee shops, but as we’re not near any of them now we’ll make do with the Starbucks at the GWU Hospital. We’re heading south on 23rd (downhill) towards the Lincoln Memorial. As we head down 23rd, you may want to swing by the Columbia Plaza shopping center (just past Virginia Ave) and pick up some water or other supplies. We’ll be walking a good chunk of the morning and pickings are scarce on the Mall.

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Weekly Washington: Incoming!

photo by M.V. JantzenPenn Quarter Living details a bit of the bait and switch of the National Aquarium here in DC. The title says it all: “Don’t Go For the Fish.” I agree, I’ve seen pet shops with more intriguing displays. Although the history of the Aquarium is pretty interesting.

A Maryland based firm has been tasked with the $30.7 million dollar contract to rebuild the Reflecting Memorial. Besides the fact that the Pool is slowly sinking into the muck that is West Potomac Park, the Reflecting Pool is plagued with numerous longstanding problems. Chief among them, the lack of circulation of the potable water in the Pool causes some truly impressive and disgusting algae blooms every year. A National Park Service spokesman did take the time to caution that the Pool will not become a swimming pool simply because it will get a new filtration system. Which is sad. (Hometown Annapolis via GGW)

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Getting to the Lincoln Memorial

So, it looks like we're going to get a few visitors this weekend that will want to visit the Lincoln Memorial. They're about to find out what legions of previous visitors have found: it's pretty darn hard to get to.

Sure, if you want to disregard our advice and drive, feel free, but parking is limited at best. For every lucky person that finds a spot along Ohio Drive, there are a dozen frustrated out of state cars circling around. And just assume you're going to get a ticket. I live here, and barely understand the enforcement of parking regulations on the Mall.

The Park Service has some handy tips from their website: "It is highly recommended that you make use of the efficient public transit system (Metro rail and Metro bus) as well as Tourmobile, the official interpretive visitor transportation service for the National Mall and Memorial Parks."

Well, great. Except that the Tourmobile costs $27 and generally sucks. And don't get me started on their ridiculous government sponsored monopoly that the Park Service gave them that hinders the "efficient public transit system" that the Park Service speaks so highly of.

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