Our Nation’s Capitol

August, 1999

Every time I go to Washington, I learn something about the world, our country, and about myself, and this time was no different. A few years ago, I realized that the Star Spangled Banner was the only song that could consistently bring tears to my eyes, and that the thing I believe in most, what I find faith in, is this nation. On this trip, I also went to the National Archives and the Library of Congress– like the faithful to the shrines, you could say.

On Saturday, we went to the Holocaust Memorial Museum. Whew. I’m still processing the experience. It was pretty intense, really. The whole architecture is chaos, every turn has some horrible photograph or artifact from the ghettos and the camps. The Exhibit is divided into three floors, which you work your way down until you arrive at the bottom. The elevator to take you to the fourth floor (the first floor of the exhibit) is all metal and discordance, design to look like the gas chambers. During the ride up, a TV screen shows footage of a Holocaust survivor talking about how these things must not happen again.