Red Rocks

Red Rocks

Friday, August 06, 2010

More DC Pix



We were just finishing up our Capitol Tour courtesy of Senator Conrad's office when the Senate confirmed Elena Kagan for the U.S. Supreme Court. We were standing near the bottom of the escalator where the Senators can get on the mini-subway for a ride back to the Senate office buildings just as they finished the vote.

We saw Independents Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Joe Lieberman, Democrats Kerry, Dodd, McKaskill, and Durbin, and most of the Republicans who joined them in approving the nominee like Olympia Snowe of Maine and Lynsey Graham of South Carolina. It was amazing to be in such close proximity to the legislators you see on the news shows, etc.

We never did get to see Senator Conrad as he had just started a meeting with Treasury Secretary Geithner as we got to his office for our tour, and then he didn't come back right after the vote as some other Senators had. Wonderful people working for Conrad who made us feel really welcome.








This one is for Monte, so that he can see that even Democratic Administrations rely on John Deere.

Wednesday, August 04, 2010

My Other Summer Vacation









We flew to Washington, D.C. on Tuesday morning hoping to help the President celebrate his birthday (in person). Alas, no luck, but celebrate we did.

What a great country despite the ongoing prejudice, sexism, poverty, and political parties who are so ignorant that they can see neither the stupidity nor the lying it takes to equate this President - MY President - and his policies - with Nazi F--king Germany and the horrors they systematically forced on the world. How do you explain to the 13 year old that there is no "good" war; that noble causes are rarely as noble as put forth; and that human beings are capable of such an extraordinary range of evil and good.

I spent half of the day choked up or in tears because of -get this - the juxtaposition of WWII and the Vietnam War and whatever it is we are calling Iraq and Afghanistan, and then seeing an exhibition of Norman Rockwell drawings and paintings and then spending 3 1/2 hours at the Holocaust Museum.

This is the most astonishing place. Revolutionary War, Founding Fathers, Civil War, War, War, War, and scattered in between the remarkable stories of fellow human beings who want to live freely.
Tomorrow we tour the Capitol itself, and will spend most of the rest of the day at Smithsonian sites.