Thoughts on Washington DC and the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear

[ponygirl72]

Writing on the plane from Baltimore to our connection in Memphis, Tennessee, I am struck by several things about DC in general, and the rally in particular.

Comments

[neadods]

It was wonderful to see the two of you - I wish there had been more time and less sore feet!

Waldo = thefannishwaldo, who's put up a couple of fun posts about the rally, including a vid of signs to the Schoolhouse Rock song about the Constitution. (A nice touch, that!)

From the window of the train, there was the occasional unrestricted view of the highway, packed bumper to bumper and sitting at a near standstill.

There's a trick to that - live inside/near the DC beltway and commute *outwards.* People live outside the area and come in; if you go the other way, you can fly up the road... just as long as you're not using the Beltway itself to get anywhere.

it's an exceptionally beautiful city.

It is, isn't it? We haven't bulldozed the beautiful old buildings to make room for Bauhaus blocks, and by law no building in the city can be taller than the Washington Monument. (I'm not making this up.) The only thing that comes close is the National Cathedral spire. Did you make it to the Cathedral? Even for the nonreligious it's stunning - Darth Vader is one of the gargoyles, and there's a moon rock incorporated into one of the stained glass windows. (According to urban legend, there are also the cremains of one of the stonemason's wives incorporated into the walls; denied the opportunity to bury her on the grounds, he had her cremated and tipped her into the mortar. Or so they say.)

I'm ecstatically happy to be back in my small town, where the current controversy revolves around the refusal of a permit to open a bar at the four-way stop

I think I told you, the biggest thing that low-level weirds me out when I travel is being in a small town and seeing local news on the front page of the newspaper. Mind you, our version of local news in the world's biggest company town is a bit... national in nature.

[taffimai]

There's a trick to that - live inside/near the DC beltway and commute *outwards.*

Or across, but against traffic. Commuting from Silver Spring to College Park is pretty painless.