HAVING A HEATHER DAY

I timed our DC trip to see Air & Space to coincide with the Washington DC Cherry Blossom Festival - figuring that the people who lived in DC would have a better chance of hitting the bloom time than I would. Unfortunately, due to an unseasonably long and cold winter, the blossoms were not yet out. However, we did enjoy the tulip trees and azaleas in full bloom.

The Smithsonian consists of many museums organized by topic area. Most of their buildings are around “The Mall” – a large public park flanked with cherry trees donated by the Japanese government and anchored by the US Capital building at one end and the Washington Monument at the other. This day on The Mall, we enjoyed modern art, outdoor sculpture and historical documents.

Before heading to The Mall, we stopped for brunch at Cosi’s. This was fast food, French style. Cosi (pronounced “cozy”) served built-to-order gourmet sandwiches with fresh, organic ingredients and fancy coffee drinks within a chic, modern interior. And if the French knew anything at all, it began with food, coffee and design. Started in Paris, Cosi had invaded the east coast—thoroughly infiltrating Washington DC. Cosi struck me as the Parisians’ retaliation for MacDonald’s and Starbucks in one deft move. Viva la France!

On our way to The Mall, we walked by the Whitehouse. As a result of security measures after 9-11, the sidewalks passing by the front entrance were blocked off to both car and foot traffic, so we walked passed the rear gate. On my last visit to DC in 2000, people were lined up around the block to attend public tours of the Whitehouse. These tours were now closed except to pre-arranged groups of school kids. The city was a flurry of construction during our visit. Most of it was fortification of existing structures to stave off potential car bombers. Some was new development – most likely trying to catch up on their schedules from the long winter.

Today was a very “Heather” day which started with the Smithsonian’s modern art museum – the Hirshhorn and the outdoor sculpture gardens. After the Hirshhorn, we made a pass through the National museum and had coffee by their underground waterfall. The exhibits we wanted to see were closed due to preparation for a reception. The workers had music blaring as they set up tables and displays. If the barriers were not enough to keep us out, the noise was. After the art museums, we stopped into the National Archives. We spent the day on foot to see more of DC and get our blood moving again  after sitting many days in the plane.

IN THE EYES OF THE BEHOLDER

The featured contemporary exhibition at the Hirshhorn was by Douglas Gordon. The better parts of the exhibition were rooms of projected video and/or video on TV screens scattered around the room. The video was either original (people standing at a stop light in New York’s SoHo, elephant walking around a white room and then playing dead) or “sampled” (Scorsasi’s Taxi Driver, Hitchcock’s Rear Window). Gordon’s installations displayed video clips in loops, changed the speed and order, with some sound and incorporated reflection on the floors or mirrors. Bruce and I both liked the elephant installation “Play Dead:Real Time” best.

Gordon’s work sparked a discussion about modern art versus classical art. We both preferred more traditional art and especially impressionists. (Some would argue impressionists are not “traditional art.”) Bruce made the point that modern art did not affect him emotionally. He preferred to connect through a recognizable representation of the subject. My point was that some modern artists had internalized their message too much - the observer had to crawl inside the head of the artist to understand the art – hard to do without knowing a lot about the context of a work.

Overall, I did like very much the works by Matisse and Chuck Close. I felt they achieved a time-lasting and obvious connection for this observer with their art. I also enjoyed Calder’s kinetic sculptures and Juan Muñoz’s whimsical sculpture displayed outside. However, neither one of us related to the paintings in one solid color (red, black, off-white on white). These struck me as an “emperor has new clothes” scam.

FEAR AS EFFECTIVE AGENT FOR CHANGE

Having our fill of art for the day, Bruce asked me if I had ever seen the Declaration of Independence.  Neither of us had, so we stopped by the National Archives to pay our respects.  Here, we saw the Charters of Freedom: Declaration of Independence, US Constitution, Bill of Rights.

We waited for a long time in line behind a tour group of thirty six junior high school kids herded by four adults. All wore bright blue satin jackets that advertised, “Stotsy’s Travel. American Heritage Tour 2004.” They were from California.  To occupy our time, we read the marketing literature provided by the Archives. It pointed out that the US Constitution was the oldest written constitution in the world.

Before seeing the Charters of Freedom, we saw a new exhibit displaying the Treaty of Kanagawa - the treaty that opened Japan to trade with the US in 1854. The display included the original document and works leading to it. It had taken 10 years and inevitably 12 steam-powered gun ships to convince the Japanese to a limited trade agreement. Japan capitulated because they feared an invasion. The gun ships convinced them that they had a technology deficit with the USA and other nations and that trade with the West would be a way to overcome it. The gun ships worked. The ripple effect of new technology like rifles from the West radically changed Japanese politics. They moved away from a military-style feudal system enforced by Samurai which resulted in civil war. (Aside: the film, Last Samurai, touches on this war from the perspective of the Samurai.)

Naval officer Matthew Perry was the key negotiator for the US. Reading through Matthew Perry's journal, both of us marveled at the very high quality of his penmanship.

One interesting challenge of negotiating the treaty was that the US and Japanese representatives did not share a common language. So the treaty was negotiated and then documented in four languages (English, Japanese, Chinese and Dutch). For the final treaty the interim translations, Dutch and Chinese language documents, were authoritative.

FOREFATHERS HAD EXCELLENT PENMANSHIP

The Declaration of Independence was very faded and somewhat “man-handled”. Being a very large sheet of paper whose bearer could be hanged, it had been folded and had a distinct hand print. What struck me were the other documents around it such as the warrant for “sedition” from King George—death by hanging for the “traitors” who were conspiring to write the Declaration.

As I was reading a copy of the Declaration, a man next to me elbowed me away and shouted into my ear, “That’s my ancestor’s name right there!” and stabbed with his finger on the glass case.  Next elbowing me and pointing to the reproduction, he exclaimed, “That John Hancock must have some ego to write his name so large like that.”  Hancock was president of the Second Continental Congress - his signature was required to make the document official.  For the first month and the first printing, his was the only signature.  The British now had a signed confession of Hancock's treason.  Hancock was also spending the majority of his personal fortune on troop salaries, arms and munitions.  (Note:  Hancock spent over £100,000 at a time when a skilled tradesman made £100 per year.)

Defending Hancock I replied, “He bankrolled the war. Why not sign big?” The rude man was stunned to silence—perhaps his was a rhetorical question. I think he missed the point of King George’s warrant to hang the signers for “sedition.” Later on when all the delegates signed the Declaration, John Hancock declared, "There must be no pulling different ways.  We must all hang together."  To which, Ben Franklin replied, "Yes, we must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately." 

The mural on the wall above the Declaration - a fabrication of an artist's imagination - depicted Thomas Jefferson handing the Declaration of Independence to John Hancock who was now president of the United States under the Articles of Confederation. The Declaration had pretty good penmanship – even under duress.

PENMANSHIP AT ITS FINEST

Reading over the Constitution, Bruce noticed that Rhode Island had not signed it. The security guard told us that Rhode Island delegates insisted that the document be officially accepted by their state congress before signing it. So, their signatures were absent from the original for another two years while the state debated it. I remarked to the helpful guard that Rhode Island must have had too many lawyers on their negotiating team. The blank look on his face told me he did not get my joke.  Parts of the document read like a grocery list. I found it amusing that creation of the Postal Service was part of the Constitution. The government had a constitutional right to “Go Postal.” This document had the best penmanship of all we saw that day.

I was relieved to see a petition submitted by a group of Quakers from Massachusetts on the immorality of slavery. Bruce noticed that Indians did not get the right to vote until the 1920’s.

In the amendments section, I read through Susan B. Anthony’s trial transcript for voting illegally as a woman in Rochester, New York. During the trial, the prosecution seemed mostly concerned about whether voting was her idea or her lawyer had put her up to it. Those lawyers again. She made it clear that it was her idea. In 1873, Ms. Anthony was found guilty of voting as a woman, given some jail time and fined $100 plus court costs.  (Note:  in 1873 the Railroad Brakemen's Union won a wage scale of $1.75 a day.)  Ms. Anthony was a Quaker.

I looked over the documents of the Louisiana Purchase. The Europeans speculated that doubling the physical size of the US would “put an end to the American experiment” as the country would be too physically large and thus complex to govern. Thomas Jefferson pushed ahead anyway to purchase the land from the French. Napoleon, Emperor of France, probably figured he could get the money now to pay for his wars and then the land later after he had conquered Europe and the American experiment failed.  However, the Europeans did not consider our secret communications weapon—the US Postal Service. Also on display was the signed “gift card” from the French for the Statue of Liberty. I should send the French a “thank you” note for the land, the statue, their help fighting King George and Cosi’s.

THE LONG WALK HOME

With the Slotsy tour group long gone, we left the National Archives as it closed and walked back to our hotel. It was cold and drizzly for 25 blocks. We arrived too early to see the cherry trees in bloom on The Mall. We balanced the cold walk and blossoms deficit with an excellent steak and lobster dinner at Bobby Van’s Steakhouse. With a friendly Irish atmosphere, good bar, fresh beer on tap, good wine list, fresh ingredients and generous portions, food did not get much better than that.