(Photo of Washington Monument about here with caption “The towering Washington Monument, a symbol of American might” “)
A letter to the president of the United States
Dear Mr. President,
I visited Washington, D.C., this weekend and regrettably we never sat and had that lunch I was hoping for. Of course, it’s not your fault in any way since I was the one who hesitated to call knowing you would be busy with the Easter Egg Roll on the White House Lawn. But as a concerned citizen of the United States, I did want to share with you my impressions of Washington, D.C., and what it seems to be saying about America’s identity.
The train trip from NYC to D.C. was arduous and expensive, so I was in a frazzled and even grumpy state of mind when I arrived at Union Station. Despite that, I remained undaunted, in good cheer and determined to enjoy my four-day visit. We managed to find a cab straight away and told the driver to take us to the Watergate where we would be staying.
As we drove past the White House, I once again thought of you and my longed for lunch at the White House and I asked the driver if he might be able to arrange a meeting with you. He just looked at me strangely and ignored my request.
The ride down Pennsylvania Avenue with all those solid neoclassical buildings made of granite was my first impression of what America is. Prior to seeing these buildings, I was like most Americans and held the fantasy that America is a fairly humble nation founded by young rebellious types like Thomas Jefferson and George Washington.
But spying on all of those very solid, formidable and rather expensive-looking granite edifices told me that, in fact, we have been a very powerful and wealthy nation. Thankfully, like Paris, Washington, D.C., has zoning laws which prevent any building to be over 13 stories high. The avenues are wide, the sky can be seen and this makes the city walkable and friendly. This city is not like New York.
The Watergate Hotel is a curvy, sprawling architectural masterpiece designed by Luigi Moretti that sits up against the Potomac River. We unpacked and decided to walk over to the Kennedy Center to see what was playing. As luck would have it, the Joffrey Ballet was in town performing “Anna Karenina,” which is already considered a 21st century masterpiece.
The next day we planned on walking to the National Mall to check out the 3,000 Japanese Cherry Blossom trees and see the Lincoln Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, Vietnam Memorial, and Korean War Memorial. As we wandered about, I did what all the tourists seem to do, which was to use the Washington Monument to gain my bearing and steer me in the right direction.
The Washington Monument is that magnificent marble and granite obelisk which towers over the National Mall, standing 554 feet high and surrounded by 50 American flags representing the 50 states. It was completed in 1885 and remains the tallest stone structure on Earth.
When one travels to Paris, the gaze is always drawn to the Eiffel Tower because of its elegant beauty and because it defines the sophisticated French identity.
The Washington Monument functions in a similar way. It shouts out: “This is America, strong, simple, proud, powerful, undeniable.”
There are two key architectural structures that define America, the Statue of Liberty and the Washington Monument. The Statue of Liberty is the mighty Mother of Exiles who stands in New York harbor with a torch and says “give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” The immigrants of the world heard this message of freedom and came to our land in droves, which by now has resulted in one of our biggest political storms, the issue of diversity.
Donald Trump’s campaign was based upon this trepidation that American identity was in a state of multi-cultural fragmentation. His effort to rebuild The Wall to keep out the world was connected to this unconscious fear of diversity and the loss of the American identity.
But I could see that the Washington Monument, the other iconic and enduring architectural structure of American identity, is the counterpoint here. Just as the Statue of Liberty is feminine, the Washington Monument is powerfully masculine with its supremely rigid phallic power pointing straight up to the sky.
It would be proper for every American to gaze upon both of these two structures and to realize that our identity and our strength are found in both of them. Strong phallic power coupled with compassionate kindness are the two sides that make America exceptional.
So let this letter reassure you, Mr. President, that America is as strong and as solid as it has ever has been. And next time I come to D.C. I hope to have that lunch in the White House, a dream that I share with every American.
Sincerely yours,
An American Citizen
