Skip to main content

Printing Money and Honoring Jews Who Suffered in the Holacaust

Both the Engraving and Printing building and the Holacaust Museum are on the same block.  The tickets for both are free but they are timed so you have to get them early and then come back at the assigned time.  David and I had tickets to see money printed first.  I had never been there before so it was interesting for me.  Money money everywhere, stacks of it, tons of it.  The workers who operated the machines and handled the money acted like they were printing news papers.  Mistakes happen and the money is just thrown away.  They just make some more.
     After we saw money being printed David and I decided to spend some.  Two hot dogs and two pretzels for $17 from a street vendor.  The hot dogs tasted OK but the pretzels were so hard I was sure they were the original pretzels.  They should have been in the Smithsonian just a few blocks away.
     It is hard to express the Holacaust Memorial experience.  I always feel a bit numb after I have been through there.  We spent two hours, moving down through the exibits, starting on the fourth floor and ending on the second floor.  Each level was more intense than the one before.  The Holacaust is covered in chronological order.  The most difficult stuff to watch is the film of the allies discovering the concentration camps.  The theme of the place is "Never Again" but the world never seems to learn.
     The late afternoon was spent seeing the western memorials: WWII, WWI,
Martin Luther King, Korea, Lincoln, and Vietnam.  Then we walked to Pennsylvania Avenue on the north side of the White House.  Conception was still there in Lafayette Park protesting for peace.  She has ben there since 1981.  I see she got herself a new tent.  She may have lost a tooth or two since the last time I was there.  She has a couple left.  Her protest has become sort of a business for her.  You can actually see her tent on Google Maps (satellite).  Just find the White House and then look to the north across Pennsylvania Ave.
     I also showed David the Blair House west of Lafayette Park where two Puerto Rican nationals tried to assassinate Pres. Truman.  They shot it out with the police and secret service outside.  There were casualties on both sides but Truman was unharmed.
     A long day.  Many miles walked.  Sore feet.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Smithsonian

There is so much to see in the museums on both sides of the National Mall I cannot possibly mention everything. I will list that which stands out.      Mueum of Natural History:  a huge stuffed elephant that dominates the rotunda, dozens of dinosaur skeletons, the Hope diamond, gemstones galore, and Egyptian mummies.      Museum of American History:  the section on civil rights from 1863 to 1963, the stories of Medal of Honor winners, the section on America at War, the section on Thomas Edison.     Air and Space Museum:  the Wright brother's plane, all the Apollo space stuff about how we went to the moon, the section on telescopes,  the section on aircraft carriers, the section on taking photographs from the air.  This last sectio n covered everything from the first pictures taken from the air in baloons and from cameras strapped to the bellies of birds to pictures taken from modern satellites.  Of all the museums...
Post a Comment
Read more

President's Graves

On this trip with David we are going to visit the graves of five Presidents.  One of the greatest, George Washington at Mount Vernon.  One of the worst, James Buchanan at Lancaster, PA.  Three in the middle.  Woodrow Wilson at the National Cathedral in Washington.  John Kennedy and Howard Taft at Arlington Cemetary in Virginia.  The two most impressive Presidential graves I have been to are Lincoln's in Springfield, IL, and Grant's in New York  City.      I have been to 17 of the 39 Presidential graves.  Most of them are very humble.   many are located in regular cemetaries.  Their grave stones are less remarkable than many others in the same cemetary.  I found this to be true of Buchanan's in Lancaster and Tyler's in Richmond.  Many are buried at their Presidential libraries, such as Hoover and Truman.  Some are buried at their homes, such as Washington, Jefferson, and FDR.      I think Lin...
1 comment
Read more

Gettysburg II

The fact that Lee was missing two of his best generals probably cost him the battle.  Stonewall Jackson was killed during the Battle of Chancellorsville two months before.  He was accidentally shot by some of his own men while he was out scouting the front lines at night.  He would have taken Culp's hill at the north end of the battlefield on the first night.  That would have made a big difference.  JEB Stuart, Lee's most able cavalry commander was off on a wild goose chase and did not arrive until two thirds of the battle was over.  Then he failed to get to the Union rear on the third day as Pickett attacked the Union center.  He was thwarted by none other than George Custer, who at 26, was the youngest general for the North.  Lee took full responsibility for the loss, but his commanders let him down.      We stayed at the same mom and pop motel that I usually stay at.  It is at the south end of town near the cemetary where L...
Post a Comment
Read more