Brandon Dothager ’16 – When applying for this trip, I started with, “Double-majoring in Political Science and Rhetoric, Washington D.C. is my Mecca.” Based on how it’s going so far, Mecca has been an understatement. Everything about D.C. exudes an attitude – I’m tempted to call it patriotism but it isn’t; “American spunk” is the closest I can come to portraying the idea. It’s an aura of being a part of the capital, literally being within a metonym for the nation as a whole, that exists within every building, monument, and D.C. native you see. In fact, D.C. has the best plate for not being a state! “Taxation without representation.”
One of the first differences from the “rest of America” that I noticed was that advertisements are never for movies, but rather political statements. Humane Watch puts a lot of effort into lobbying public transportation. They’ve got per-state charts everywhere on various subjects, such as the attached “Pet Shelter Spending by State.” (Excuse the blurriness, the Metro isn’t quite smooth.) There’s also quite a few direct statements on current policy, such as healthcare.
However, hands down my favorite “advertisement” is a diplomatic one. There’s an entire subway exit that has had all of its advertising bought out by Canada in an attempt to promote US-Canadian relations. It is very amusing to leave a train in DC and see maple leafs everywhere.
After we finally disembarked from the Metro, we went to the White House. The White House was underwhelming – it is not a big building by any means and it satisfied my curiosity to see it very quickly. After I got bored of watching people awkwardly pose for selfies in front of the White House, I noticed that there was a booth set up across from the White House. As a result, I wasn’t nearly as interested in the White House as I was the protestor that was in front of it. Concepcion Picciotto has been protesting in front of the White House since 1981; she holds the record for the longest continuous protest. Her central focus is peace and elimination of nuclear arms. However, she also makes arguments that I find more controversial
– she’s anti-Israel though she never said anything that struck me as explicitly anti-Semetic. While she was in very poor shape, she was able to hand out paper print-outs of her Emails to President Obama. (She calls herself Obama’s “closest neighbor.”) Her persistence is incredible.
After eating some of the best pizza I’ve ever had at “We, the Pizza,” we went onward to a free concert held at the Library of Congress. I’ll admit that I wasn’t that excited – I had never heard of jazz singer Gregory Porter. However, by the end of the show, his concert became my favorite concert that I have ever attended. During a live version of “Work Song” (different from the Spotify version, unfortunately) his performance was so powerful that I’ll admit I actually shed a tear. Jazz’s improvisation makes it one of the best genres to be heard live. The favorite song in the Derek Andre-Patrick Bryant-Brandon Dothager room is now firmly “1960 What?”
I’m loving D.C., and I’m just very happy I had the opportunity to make such a patriotic hajj.
