{"id":529,"date":"2014-03-11T16:26:47","date_gmt":"2014-03-11T16:26:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/immersionlearning201314\/?p=529"},"modified":"2014-03-11T16:31:31","modified_gmt":"2014-03-11T16:31:31","slug":"dothager-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/immersionlearning\/2014\/03\/11\/dothager-16\/","title":{"rendered":"D.C. Advertisements Fascinate Dothager ’16"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brandon Dothager ’16<\/em> – When applying for this trip, I started with, \u201cDouble-majoring in Political Science and Rhetoric, Washington D.C. is my Mecca.\u201d Based on how it\u2019s going so far, Mecca has been an understatement. Everything about D.C. exudes an attitude \u2013 I\u2019m tempted to call it patriotism but it isn\u2019t; \u201cAmerican spunk\u201d is the closest I can come to portraying the idea. It\u2019s 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! \u201cTaxation without representation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Brandon<\/a>One of the first differences from the \u201crest of America\u201d 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\u2019ve got per-state charts everywhere on various subjects, such as the attached \u201cPet Shelter Spending by State.\u201d (Excuse the blurriness, the Metro isn\u2019t quite smooth.) There\u2019s also quite a few direct statements on current policy, such as healthcare.<\/p>\n

However, hands down my favorite \u201cadvertisement\u201d is a diplomatic one. There\u2019s 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.
\nAfter we finally disembarked from the Metro, we went to the White House. The White House was underwhelming \u2013 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\u2019t 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
\n\u2013 she\u2019s 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\u2019s \u201cclosest neighbor.\u201d) Her persistence is incredible.<\/p>\n

After eating some of the best pizza I\u2019ve ever had at \u201cWe, the Pizza,\u201d we went onward to a free concert held at the Library of Congress. I\u2019ll admit that I wasn\u2019t that excited \u2013 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 \u201cWork Song\u201d (different from the Spotify version, unfortunately) his performance was so powerful that I\u2019ll admit I actually shed a tear. Jazz\u2019s 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 \u201c1960 What?\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019m loving D.C., and I\u2019m just very happy I had the opportunity to make such a patriotic hajj.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brandon Dothager ’16 – When applying for this trip, I started with, \u201cDouble-majoring in Political Science and Rhetoric, Washington D.C. is my Mecca.\u201d Based on how it\u2019s going so far, Mecca has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"w_featured_image_url":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/immersionlearning\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2014\/03\/Brandon-Dothager-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/immersionlearning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/immersionlearning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/immersionlearning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/immersionlearning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/immersionlearning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=529"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/immersionlearning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":533,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/immersionlearning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529\/revisions\/533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/immersionlearning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/immersionlearning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/immersionlearning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}