I visited Washington DC on a Washington Link Experience Program as part of the Kettering Foundation’s International Civic Society Fellowship Program and with my colleagues Jolanta Mindewicz from Poland and Ekaterina Lukyanova from Russia. I was taken in by the city, it was nothing like I expected. It has many historical sites to visit and is a true nerve centre of America’s democracy. Washington DC has many streets and sidewalks, a luxury I don’t have in Dayton. I could therefore burn calories walking around sight seeing.
I visited the Capitol building, where both the senate and congress sits. I was amazed at the easy at we secure passes to the Congress and the Senate. Our tour guide, Mary P de Butts was able to secure the passes for us from the office of the speaker of the House of Representatives, Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The Capital Building is opened to the public seven days a week and the day I visited; there were many other visitors too. The building was literally swamped and I kept asking myself how people could get work done in such an environment but I guess that’s a price to pay for running an open and accessible building.
The chamber of congress is absolutely beautiful, its ceiling are decorated with historical painting, the halls lined with historical figurines from all over the states in the US. The floors tiles are a masterpiece. Unfortunately, Congress was not sitting on the day we visited, so we spent very little time in the gallery them moved on to senate. We listened to a presentation by Senator Ted Kennedy on the Food and Drug Administration Revitalization Act (S. 1082) which would impose the two-year moratorium on advertising newly approved drugs.
Washington boasts of many historical sites and the National Mall area holds many interesting places. The view of the Mall from the Lincoln memorial is spectacular; you have the lush lawn on each side of the Reflecting Pool between the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument. I stood on the spot where Martin Luther King stood and made his famous “I have a dream” speech. We had the opportunity to visit the Vietnam, Korean and the World War 2 memorials. I’d rather not say much about the war memorials as it reminds me of the war in Iraq. The Lincoln, Jefferson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial. The larger than life statues reminded me of the immense role they each played in American Democracy. Then we had lunch in the Smithsonian castle, I wasn’t impressed by the food but by the fact I was in a historical building. The art gallery located in the Smithsonian castle houses different arts forms. Unfortunately we didn’t have much time in the castle but the little I saw of it is worth remembering. My only regret is that didn’t get to visit the Library of Congress, which was closed.
I had other learning experiences which I talk about in different entries.
