Washington DC, the Capital

It was a memorable day that we spent in Washington DC, which itself is full of memorials for the dead and the alive. On a bright day, early morning my brother, his wife and I boarded the tourist bus by Grey Line to the place.

                                                             

                                                                                 Arlington National Cemetery

First place to stop was Arlington National Cemetery encompassing some 624 acres. One can never imagine the huge number of crosses erected in the memory of the soldiers and officers who had died in the various wars of USA. There were 400,000 of them, row after row, sending an ominous message, ‘People die in war. Victory is not without price. There is a human cost to any war.’ What touched me here was the fact that when the wife of the veteran died her name gets inscribed at the back of the tomb stone, so also any minor children dying before their time. That I thought was beautiful and very sentimental.

Grave stone of Jaqueline Kennedy

We also saw the graves of John F. Kennedy, his wife Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, brothers Robert F. Kennedy, Ted Kennedy and Joe Kennedy – almost the whole family of Kennedys was there. What impressed me was the simplicity of their graves: just one granite slab was there to mark each of their burial places, with their names inscribed on the top of it. Many coins, pennies have been thrown on these slabs, result of superstition of the visitors over the years!

                               

                                  John F. Kennedy's grave stone

Next we walked on the National Mall which houses the Memorial to Abraham Lincoln, World War II, Vietnam veterans and so on. It is a spread out beautiful park with the Lincoln Memorial on one end, followed by the Washington Monument, which is the iconic Obelisk, leading to the Reflecting Pool and the other monuments.

Lincoln Memorial is a stately white building with columns, built in 1922, in honor of Abraham Lincoln, the President who unified the country after the civil war, which was fought to emancipate the slaves. It is proudly said that America is the only country which went to war to abolish slavery.

           Lincoln Memorial

It is built in Doric Architectural style, mimicking the colonnades of Ancient Greece on Pantheon. It is an unmistakable Greek revival architecture recalling the freedom which the City States of Athens and some other Greeks cities gave to their citizens in running their government. The early American fathers who wrote the constitution of their country were definitely impressed by the system of governance in Ancient Greece.

                                                                                 Washington Monument - the obelisk

The Obelisk itself was built in 1888 to commemorate George Washington, the First President of America, and is still the highest structure in Washington DC. The Reflecting Pool and the Obelisk stand as silent witness to many great events of the nation, starting from the oath-taking of the new Presidents to the rallies organized by various eminent leaders, including Dr. Martin Luther King, who fought for civil rights of the Colored people.

Vietnam Veterans Memorial

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was the next place we visited, which was also in the National Mall itself. It has been established in 1982, in memory of the US armed forces which fought in the Vietnam War of the 70s. More than 58,000 names of soldiers who either lost their lives in the war or lost have been inscribed here. It is written in the background, “Freedom is not free.” True, for the freedom of future generations these brave soldiers had laid down their lives.

Whether the Vietnam war itself was right or wrong and whether America should have participated in it just to ward off the influence of the Communist Russia or not, are not the questions I would want to debate on. In the final tally, people had died, families lost their sons, fathers, bread-winners and women, mothers and wives lost their sons or husbands and children grew up father-less. That is important. Will this madness ever end? Fighting over religion, over ideologies, over trade and over power? May be not, not as long as the world as we know lasts. Only in the Kingdom of God which will be ushered in by Jesus Christ in his Second Coming, can we expect such a scenario of peace and real freedom.

                                                                                         Korean War Veterans Memorial

Then we passed through the Korean War Veterans Memorial, established in 1995, where again life size statues of soldiers in their full combat dress are standing as mute witnesses of horrors of yet another war. There was also National World War II Memorial, established in 2004, in a semicircular manner in the outdoors.

National World War II Memorial

It left me wondering, is there any one place in India where we have such memorial for those who laid their lives to protect the freedom of those who are living now? I cannot recall any, except some well maintained World War I memorials spread across the country, maintained by World authorities. I remember seeing one in Calcutta, next to the CNI (Church of North India), burial ground, where my dear elder brother lies buried. What prevents us from making such memorials for the dead soldiers? Culture? May be, but we need to learn some of these from the West.

We moved over these memorials to the most important buildings of Washington. The capital city itself is situated on the banks of river Potomac and is known as Washington DC, because it was formally the District Columbia. As a National Capital of United States of America, it has three main important buildings, the Capitol, White House and the Supreme Court.

      The Capitol

Capitol is the home of US Congress and the seat of legislative branch of US Federal government. It was opened up in 1800 and built in Neo-classical style. Does it remind you of another Capitol, the Capitol Hills of Rome? Yes, Capitoline is one of the seven hills on which Ancient Rome was founded.

It was the political and religious hub of Rome, the symbol of eternity and indestructibility of Rome. Yet in 476 AD the Western Roman Empire with its capital in Rome fell to the barbarians and in 1453 AD the Eastern Roman Empire and its capital Constantinople fell to the ravages of Ottoman Army. What is so eternal about any earthly kingdom or Empire? They all rise only to fall after some centuries. May be, Roman Empire lasted the longest, some 2000 and more years!  

                                                                            The White House - Northern Facade

White House is the official residence of the President of USA and also the work place. Though built in 1800, additions, alterations and modifications were on till 1950s. It is the seat of Oval Office of the President, created in 1909 and the executive residence of the President. The seat of power, one might say.

The Supreme Court of US is the highest federal court in US founded in 1789. It is the final appellate court for all cases and has its own original jurisdiction too. It is also the final interpreter of the federal law as enshrined in the US Constitution. Its present imposing and dignified building was built in 1935; “Equal Justice under the Law” is inscribed on the top facade of the building.  

There are many museums in the capital city, but we could see only the Natural Air and Space museum, for want of time and also due to the tired legs begging us to sit and not wander any more.  We returned tired but well informed about the capital of America, the leading nation of the world. Sure worth the visit.