Tag: Washington DC

January Plans

Back in January 2009 when Barak Obama was inaugurated I felt like I should have been there to celebrate with him and thousands of my closest friends. In January 2021 when Joe Biden was inaugurated I felt like I should be there cheering on the fact that the orange shit clown lost and the USA was saved for at least a few years.

I didn’t go on either occasion. I honestly didn’t try, even though I really would have liked to have been there.

In January 2025 WHEN Kamala Harris is inaugurated I am really going to want to be there to celebrate with her and thousands of my closest friends.

We already have a trip planned for that month. Our trip does not include January 20th though. It’s a week later. Washington, DC is far enough away that I couldn’t go there for the day and then go home that same day. I would have to go down on Sunday, attend the inauguration on Monday, and then drive home on Tuesday. Two vacation days in the week before I go on vacation for a week… that would be a tough sell. WHEN she wins the election… I might look into the possibility of it though. Even if I have to sleep in the car because I probably won’t be able to get a hotel room in the city.

We’ll see, my friends… we’ll see.

The Civil War: A Film By Ken Burns

Jen and I have watched a lot of Ken Burns films. Over the last week I finally got her to watch The Civil War. My love and devotion to Star Wars and The Godfather and other great movies aside, I think The Civil War might be the greatest movie ever made.

When I watched it for the first 20 times back in the 90’s it did not hit as close to home as it does now. 30 years ago it felt like we were finally moving beyond that particular struggle. Boy was I a naive idiot.

100B3480
Gettysburg
DSCN1673
Manassas
100B6191
Old Abe

The 51st State

Ever since I learned about civics when I was a kid, I have wanted something. I learned that there were 50 states in the USA but 50 was not a fixed number. We could add more. I thought that was awesome. Like, how do we go about getting state #51? Let’s do it! Let’s add a star to the flag!

There are about 700,000 American citizens living in Washington, DC. More people live in DC than live in either Wyoming or Vermont. Because they do not live in a state, they have no representation in the US Senate. They do have a representative in the US House of Representatives, but that rep does not get to vote.

How is it possible that in the year 2020, 700,000 Americans are not represented in Congress? Wasn’t the question of representation one of the reasons we fought for Independence in the first place?

Let’s fix this. The US House of Representatives is scheduled later today to take a vote on granting statehood to Washington, DC. The bill will reduce the size of the US Capital to just include the main Federal buildings and the Washington Mall. That will leave the Capital outside of any state and free up the rest of the city to become a state for itself.

I am on board. Let’s do this! I want a new star on the flag. I want all Americans to have voting representatives in both houses of Congress.

Of course the republicans in the Senate and the nazi in the white house will never let this happen. They live on the policy of voter suppression. They will never do anything that increases the number of votes. Still, it’s a nice idea.

for further reading, click here.

Women’s March

Did you see the pictures today? I was watching a CNN stream from Washington. Half a million people? It looked incredible, and that was just one city. There were marches and rallies all over the country. It was amazing. Outstanding. They said Boston topped one hundred thousand people. That’s my city, people. In my city, we know what’s right.

To hell with that fascist prick.

All of the women who marched today are American heroes.

Greatest Park Bench on Earth

It was seriously hot this morning, and when you got into the sun it was oppressive. We stopped for a bottle of water outside of one of the Smithsonian museums, American History, I think.

We needed a place to sit down and refuel ourselves and it had to be shady. We found one magical spot, and in that spot was the single greatest park bench ever produced by human hands. I mean, this thing is the greatest. I want to build a monument to this bench.

The Greatest Park Bench on Earth