Skip to main content

The Last Day

Today we toured the U.S. Capitol.  I had scheduled a tour through Sen. Heitkamp's office.  Ben was our tour guide and he was very good.  If you ever go to Washington, call one of our senator,s offices and get a tour through them.  A public tour had about 30 people per group.  We had five in ours, a family of three from Bismark and David and me.  Because our group was small Ben was able to take us into places the larger groups could not go.  Ben was also very knowledgable.  He had done his homework.
     The Senate was in session, that is if you call two Senators debating each other, in session.  What you see on C-Span is usually a congressman speaking to an empty chamber.  They act like they are speaking to a packed place, but they seldom are.  It is all just an act.
     After we finished at the capitol, we visited the Supreme Court building.  The court was not in session so there were not any demonstrators outside on the front steps.  Because the Civil War happened 150 years ago just about every building has a Civil War theme.  The Supreme Court was no different.  On the bottom floor which is really nothing more than a museum, the theme was the legal conflict between Lincoln and Chief Justice Taney over the writ of habeas corpus which guarantees us a trial.  Lincoln suspended it during the Civil War so he could throw civilians who aided the South in jail without a trial.  Taney claimed this was unconstitutional.  Lincoln argued that he would have to disregard one part of the Constitution in order to save the whole.  "It makes sense to sacrifice an arm to save a life, but I have never heard of sacrificing a life to save an arm," Lincoln said in defense of his actions.
     After the Supreme Court we toured the Jefferson building of the Library of Congress.  This is the most beautiful building in all of Washington.  The architecture and the artwork is spectacular.  I have never seen so much symbolism.  We saw a Gutenburg Bible.  Thomas Jefferson's book collection was in a room by itself.  He had the largest library in the US.  In fact, his library was the genesis of the Library of Congress.  The reading room is famous for being in the movie "National Treasure II"
    It was terribly cold today.  I do not think it got above freezing.  The wind was howling.  It was more like North Dakota than Virginia.
 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Highways

 I find it interesting to come across a highway number down here that is the same as a highway number up in our neck of the woods. Yesterday, we spent some time on Highway 281, which is the same U.S. highway that goes through Jamestown and crosses Highway 2 at Churches Ferry.  I-35 splits into I-35 W and I-35 E as it passes through Ft. Worth and Dallas, just as it does in the Twin Cities. Many years ago in North Carolina, I was on U. S. 52, which runs from Portal SE across America, sometimes disappearing for hundreds of miles, swallowed up by highways that get more respect.  On the way down here we crossed U. S. 30, which is known as the Lincoln Highway out east because it passes through Gettysburg and Northern Illinois.  I don’t know who devised the U.S. highway system, but they made it interesting.
Post a Comment
Read more

Dallas where JFK was assasinated

I am standing on the sidewalk reading the historical marker.  Out in the street behind me is a white X painted where the Presidential limo was when Kennedy eat hit with the fatal head shot (the third shot).  Farther up the street to my right an X marks the spot where the second shot hit him high on his back. This was the “magic bullet” that went through JFK’s back and then hit Connelly.  That billet actually caused seven wounds.  Beyond me is the Texas Book Drpository.  Oswald shot from the far right window on the sixth floor. That window is behind the tree. Only the seventh floor can be seen from this angle.  Ruth is standing next to the stone pedestal in which Zapruder stood and made his famous video of the assassination.  Dealy Plaza is across the street behind her. This was taken up in the Sixth Floor Museum. This is the window Oswald shot three shots from.  The boxes are arrranged just as they were on 11/22/63.  This is the X on the stre...
Post a Comment
Read more

Day 4, Monday

 We slept in at a small motel in Johnson City. Then we visited the LBJ stuff in Johnson City.  That took about an hour. Then we drove west to the LBJ ranch, where we visited the gravesite and the ranch complex. It was quite an extensive thing,  hundreds of acres.  We followed that up with a visit to a peach stand. Peach pie, cobbler, and ice cream, which we ate at the LBJ roadside rest Then we drove to the Cedar Lodge Resort on Lake Buchanan for the Skar reunion. We were the first ones there. The test of the Rolf Skar branch trickled in and we had a delicious pasta supper. The younger, more handsome Brian Skar’s wife, Tonya, is super organized and did a great job with the meal.  100 degrees temperature.  The ranger in Johnson City informed me that the name of the lake is pronounced “Buckanan”. I told him I taught history for 30 years and if the lake was named after the 15th President it was pronounced Byoochanan.  He informed me that “Texans like to do...
Post a Comment
Read more