Evening Visit to Congress Or Yielding Myself the Time I Need to Consume

This evening several of us attended a late session of Congress where the U.S. House of Representatives were considering any number of bills before they go out on break (again). Our legislation was number #63 on a huge list so we knew it would be late before our bill was considered. So, after showing our red passes we went through security. This was a thorough search as the guard found a small spray hand sanitizer in my make-up bag and told me to go back outside and throw it in their special bins they have for such items and then made me walk again through the metal detector machine. So after walking through winding paths inside the new Visitor Center we ended up turning in our cell phones & cameras and got into the Gallery and watched the proceedings. It's a very bureaucratic, ritual-laden process and we were in quiet hysterics about how each Congressional Representative gave him or herself permission to speak after the House chair said "Each side will control 20 minutes."  The Member would then say, "I yield myself as much time as I may consume." And then the House Chair would say "the Member is recognized" and the speechifying would start with Members yielding back and forth their time. Most of the bills were of little concern to us although at one point one Member got himself into a good rant and rave about the recent DOJ decision involving threatening of voters, even though the bill under consideration did not directly, or even indirectly, seem to be connected. Things also got a bit lively when someone got worked up about the federal government only paying $1 for land that cost a city government $170,000 but it all seemed a bit arcane and unreal. That is, of course, until they came to the legislation we'd been working on for four years and we sat their agog as they went through the legislative ritual and passed it! Hooray! What a gladness this was!

Gargoyle or GeeGaw?

Everyone knows I'm on Capitol Hill quite a bit lobbying on disability issues, but it's also an opportunity for me to snap a few photos with the miracle of a cell phone camera. Nope, not an iPhone, just a simple ole LG for $40 that came with the Verizon service plan. This time I looked up from my walk from Rayburn over to the Ford building as I stood in the shade to cool off from the 90 degree weather. Not only was I standing under a wonderful flowering Southern Magnolia but I could see this gargoyle gee-gaw thing on the top of the wall column. It seems to be a cornucopia or horn held by a creature like a squirrel and looks over toward the HHS building, past the ornamental garden that is alongside the Route 395 entrance way. I'd never noticed this before and wondered what was behind the design for this. If you look closely, it turns out to be the head of a little winged horse with a giant horn behind it and it may have waves carved in the base stone, although it's hard to see from below. It does remind me of the wonderful fountain sculpture in front of the old Library of Congress, so I think one day I will conduct some research and find out about this stone creature and when it was put there and what the iconography is all about. It just doesn't seem to fit into our techno modern world of sleek literal easily understood icons. Or at any rate, I've forgotten whatever it is I might have learned in Art History about this type of ornamental sculpture. But what a mystery to bump into, on the way to a policy wonk meeting with committee staff in a drab building! It quite got my mind in a better frame of thought, curious about its meaning. Can I say it influenced what I said at the wonk  meeting or did I say less as a consequence? I don't remember but the image has stuck with me where the conversation has not.

Back in the City after Visit to Greener Virginia

Driving back into the city today after visiting family members in Virginia I noticed all the tourists in town and how they were enjoying themselves looking at all the spectacular monuments and buildings that there are to see. In particular, I seemed to get stuck behind at least three open air double decker red buses loaded with lolly-goggling out-of-towners looking at all the sights. I'm not sure if these buses give an audio tour for them but judging from the number of times I got stuck behind one of these red former London city buses, it would seem like the tour goes all over the Mall area, where most of the critical sights are located. Even though it was past sunset the tourists were on the bus, cameras flashing from the bus upper deck, at the views of Congress and the Korean war monument nearby. I just don't see how they got a picture at all! Earlier in the day, on my way out to Virginia, I'd seen crowds of tourist groups all over the Mall. One group of 12 year old girls, all dressed in lime green T-shirts (so they could find each other?) crossed Constitution Avenue in unison while there were also families pushing children and babies in strollers in the 90 degree heat, standing at intersections, wondering which way to go next. I marveled at their willingness and persistence in clambering up all the steps at the Archives building and the Lincoln Memorial, both of which seemed to attract many visitors today. After spending most of the day in the green rolling fields and suburbs of Virginia, I thought how interesting and pleasant and historic Washington, DC looked in comparison. I'm so glad to live in this city sometimes!