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| May 09, 2008 |
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The usual rollerhockey players and joggers who frequent this blocked-off strip of downtown DC were gone. They had been deterred by a collection of protesters calling for the President's impeachment as well as the stream of police cars that had gathered to ensure that the sign-carrying, chanting crowd did not attempt to scale the fence and enter the White House grounds. The press corps that broadcasts nightly from outside the White House had tripled its usual size. It was marked by a cluster of bright lights, cameras and microphones ready to transmit analysis and sound bites of the President's words the moment he finished uttering them. Behind this jumbled mass of people and technology, just a hundred yards away, President Clinton sat in the Oval Office delivering his speech to the nation. Intense activity and controlled chaos were occurring directly in front of me. This is it, I thought - American freedom and democracy in action. This is what Washington DC is all about. Cool. I continued hustling past the West Wing, winding through the police cars in the street, when a string of people leaving the East Wing caught my attention. Every year the Park Service decorates the East Wing of the White House for the holidays, and the First Family invites employees of the Executive Office to tour the grounds with their families and friends. On one side of the White House, the President addressed the nation, the protesters pumped their signs up and down, and the press began to disseminate the day's events to the public. On the other, people made their way through the Red Room and the China Room, snapping photos of the White House Christmas tree and the gingerbread cutouts of Socks and Buddy. As I took in this scene, it occurred to me that this historic day had been no different from any other day for most of the people who work in and around DC. This morning they rode the Metro to work, attended meetings, ate lunch, wrote memos, returned home, turned on the news, and listened to reports broadcast from the White House. The events I had just witnessed involved a very small minority of the people here. And yet, as removed as the people who made their way home that evening from the various institutions housed in our nation's capitol were from these events, they were watching them unfold with a closer eye and a more personal connection than people in the rest of the country. They may not have been directly involved in the emerging saga, but they knew that it would infiltrate their lives through informal conversations, an altered political climate in which they would have to function, and the daily headlines and commentary that bombard them at every turn. They also knew that these events would be viewed entirely differently outside the Beltway. As polls taken weeks later confirmed, the "general public" briefly discussed Clinton's motivations that night amongst themselves and then rolled their eyes at "the mess in Washington." In spite of the press, the White House, and the Congress' best attempts, people outside of Washington have yet to be convinced that what happens here is worthy of more attention than they already give it. Occasionally, however, legislation, ideas, or glimpses of leadership that improve the lives of the general public make their way out of the Beltway. In Washington, watching events unfold is fascinating; being involved is addicting. The possibility of turning a good idea into reality is here, and it is what has brought me and other recent graduates to this town. The disconnect between DC and the rest of the country, however, is what reminds us that we will not stay here for long. My contemporaries and I comprise the newest generation to enter the Washington, DC workforce. We are looked to for the new ideas, fresh perspectives, and willingness to work long hours that every cause depends on to maintain its presence. The work we do, and the organizations for which we do it, are as varied as our hometowns. A woman from Boston came here to work on issues affecting the Jewish community for the Religious Action Center. She is now working for an organization that lobbies to force the United States to pay back its debts to the United Nations. A man from San Diego stopped out of his graduate program in neurobiology at CalTech to work on the Natural Resources Defense Council's campaign to prevent a salt plant from being built in Baja California. A woman from Berkeley is a legal assistant at the second largest law firm in town. She came to DC to find work with a non-profit dedicated to refugee-relief issues but could not find a job. Law school now appears to be the next step. A woman from Bethesda, Maryland is an Americorps volunteer at a low-income clinic. She spends her free time completing applications for medical and public health schools so that one day she can open her own clinic. Washington offers us the chance to work at non-profits for causes we believe in while we learn how congressional offices and committees function; to determine what it takes to become a successful lobbyist; to work on the largest of all budgets; and to test our values and work styles against those of government agencies, private firms, and non-government organizations to see where we fit the most comfortably. It tempts us with the chance to be involved in broad national and international issues and meet the players in them, a higher level of responsibility in our work than many recent graduates are given, and the possibility of having "been there" as history is made. Our time here is temporary - none of us foresees raising a family or growing old in this town - so we use it to gain both some insight into what we would like to work on when we leave here and an understanding of the factors and processes that are involved in making the decisions that do and will affect our lives. It is exciting to be in the midst of history and compelling to be at the center of the debates over issues we care about, but every time we return to DC from a few days at home or meet people who have made a life for themselves inside the Beltway, we are reminded that something is missing in this town. For some, it is a deeper sense of community and roots. The city was eerily empty during the week leading up to Thanksgiving. People do not come here for the holidays; their families and what they consider "home" are beyond the Beltway. Many come here for a few years of public service, lobbying, or to serve in an Administration, and then they return home. It is a town of two, four, or eight year leases. For others it is a personal life beyond politics. Politics dominates the news, and it is present in nearly every walk I take down a main street (as evidenced by the bookstore "Politics and Prose" and the club "State of the Union"). It comes up in casual conversations the way basketball is talked about in Chicago or football in Denver. In DC, politics is, in a very real sense, the local sport. Our trips home remind us what it is to live where people do not gather to watch and discuss the State of the Union address and can string together consecutive acronym-free sentences. It is comforting to know that "normal lives" continue outside of the Beltway, and that when this city becomes too frustrating or too ugly, or when we feel it is time to focus on other parts of our lives, we can and will escape. In the meantime, however, we are enjoying our time here. The free Smithsonian museums, monuments, and public concerts ensure that even those of us living on the starting salaries of non-profits can enjoy high quality art and culture. Happy hour specials allow us to eat out in some kind of style; as one man who was in the middle of an unpaid internship said, "You never have to pay more than five dollars for a meal here if you're willing to have your dinner consist of chicken wings and beer." We have parties that bring together various offices and schools' alumni, at which we realize just how small a world this is; walk to clubs, restaurants and bars weekend nights; and get games of soccer, ultimate, football and softball going on the Mall. The places we pass through in our daily lives remind us that this is not, however, just another big city. My daily runs lead me past the Naval Observatory where the Vice President lives, the hotel where Monica stayed on her returns to DC, and the embassies where the Ambassadors reside. It is impossible to forget that we are living among the characters whose utterances and actions affect the course of the country's events. Occasionally I pass President Clinton and his entourage as they jog through Rock Creek Park; Ken Starr eats out at a restaurant down my street; my co-workers spot Sam Donaldson coming out of the ABC News building at lunch. There is, however, much more to the unique culture of DC than these political celebrity sightings. Reminders of events entrenched in our history are the backdrop against which we live our daily lives. When we play ultimate on the Mall, going in one direction we face the Capitol building where nearly every legislative debate in the history of the United States has taken place. In the other direction, a marble President Lincoln presides over the steps where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his I Have a Dream speech. On our weekend runs, we pass statues and etched faces of men who fought in the Korean War and the names of those citizens who died in Vietnam. The Spirit of St. Louis, the Wright brothers' plane, and John Glenn's Mercury capsule are suspended in the foyer of the Air and Space Museum showing us how far and how quickly our horizons have expanded. We attend plays and concerts at the Ford Theater where President Lincoln was assassinated and at the Kennedy Center where an enormous bust of JFK welcomes audience members. My walk to work takes me past the corner where President Reagan was shot. As we ride the Metro out of the city, we face the hills of Arlington Cemetery. It is nearly impossible to walk three blocks in this town without coming across a memorial, monument, or museum. Wherever we go, we are enveloped in history, both past and present. These constant reminders show us how much is possible in this town in spite of the seemingly insurmountable, and highly publicized, divisions that exist between different interest groups and political parties. They serve as inspiration - reminders that, despite our cynicism, people here have worked, and will continue to work, to keep the country on a progressive path. This path has led us out of and into the Depression and New Deal, segregation and civil rights, the Cold War and the fall of the Berlin Wall. Our history shows that people in DC have risen above the murk (or glitter, depending on one's point of view) of this city to enact changes that affect the lives of citizens in places to which my contemporaries and I hope to return. The chance that we may be able to participate in, or be witnesses to, a moment such as that is at the core of why we are here and what we hope to accomplish. |
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