the trip to Washington was lovely, even including the drive there and back w/out AC in the Toyota. there were so many wonderful smells along the way (until actually reaching the city): the yellow-wood trees are blooming all along the highway, also the polonias. the air was fragrant with those blossoms, roses, honeysuckle, cut grass, hay drying in the fields. i was actually glad to have no AC, forcing me to keep the windows open. i would have missed the smells of late spring, early summer otherwise.
here, though, is the highlight of the trip. our visiting friend is a landscape architect and my sister a landscape designer. and we are all FDR fans. so after a delicious dinner, a little ranting and raving (but in fact we all exercised remarkable restraint), we set off for a night trip to the FDR Memorial. if you have not yet visited this remarkable place, put it in your plans for any future trip to D.C. it's been open seven years this month, and it just gets better and better. the landscaping is now maturing, the site is incredible - four acres between the Potomac and the Tidal Basin - but it is the strength of the place and what it says about our 32nd President that makes it so remarkable. it was filled with high-school trippers, a fact that fills me with gladness, because despite their baggy-pantsd cavorting, even they seemed impressed by this monument. it's four outdoor "rooms," each with sculptures, water features, and most overwhelming of all, inscriptions from FDR's speeches carved into the huge granite walls. here are a few samples:
"No Country, however rich, can afford the waste of its human resources. Demoralization caused by vast unemployment is our greatest extravagance. Morally, it is the greatest menace to our social order." Second Fireside Chat on Government and Modern Capitalism, Washington, D.C., September 30, 1934.
"Among American citizens there should be no forgotten men and no forgotten races." Address at the Dedication of the New Chemistry Building, Howard University, Washington, D.C., October 26, 1936.
"Men and nature must work hand in hand. The throwing out of balance of the resources of nature throws out of balance also the lives of men." Message to Congress on the Use of Our Natural Resources, Washington, D.C., January 24, 1935.
"In these days of difficulty, we Americans everywhere must and shall choose the path of social justice,the path of faith, the path of hope and the path of love toward our fellow men." Campaign Address, Detroit, Michigan, October 2, 1932.
"I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, and ill-nourished. The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little." Second Inaugural Address, Washington, D.C., January 20, 1937.
Well, i realize i could go on and on. there're all here, you can read all of them yourself. best is to go and see them in situ, it brings chills to me just remembering. this one, the VietNam War Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial are the DC public monuments that move me, that define what it is for me to be an American.
4 comments:
The FDR Memorial is my favorite. Do it at night, and you get a whole different experience. I highly recommend it for visitors to DC. Plus, FDR was such a cool guy, and his words are so true and timely.
I look at FDR and am amazed. and then I look at who we've had for a long time now and am saddened. I want a president to believe in again.
The last time I was in DC I was 14 years old. You make me realize I need to plan a trip. Thank you for the mini trip.
As much as I've traveled, I've never been to Washington, D.C. This memorial sounds impressive, and FDR's words even more so. D. has never been there, either; we just might make a trip of it.
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