Capitol tour
Will's friend Kate is interning with one of Oregon's senators, so yesterday, she gave us a tour of the Capitol building. We started out in one of the Senate office buildings. Didn't see a lot of names that I recognized, but we did pass Trent Lott's office, and Hillary Clinton's. I think I growled out loud when we passed Lott's door. To get from the office building to the Capitol, you take this little underground trolley thing, which Will dubbed the Senate-mobile:
The Capitol is beautiful. It really is.
The first thing we saw were these intricate paintings covering the walls and ceilings. Most of it was painted by some artist a long time ago, but he died before finishing, and left lots of blank spaces. The plan is to fill these blank spaces with paintings of more recent important events in American history, but the problem is that no one can agree just what consitutes an important event. So there are a couple of paintings of astronauts, and there are plans to do something about September 11th, but most of blank spaces that the artist left behind will be waiting for a long time. Here's one example of the odd juxtaposition of flowery decoration with modern science:
Every state gets to contribute two statues to the Capitol. Most states have, predictably, gone the Dead White Guy route. I asked Kate, and she thinks that there might be about seven statues of women, total. But most states chose their statues long before we got all enlightened and stuff, so I can't be too critical. I was pleased with Oklahoma's choice of statues. We have Sequoya, who invented the Cherokee written language, and Will Rogers, an all-around cool guy. Some Will Rogers quotes that I like:
"I don't care how little your country is, you got a right to run it like you want to. When the big nations quit meddling then the world will have peace."
"People talk peace. But men give their life's work to war. It won't stop 'til there is as much brains and scientific study put to aid peace as there is to promote war."
"I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat."
"There ought to be one day-- just one-- when there is open season on senators."
"I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts."
And I kind of like that he's slouching in his statue:
And then there were these huge, huge beautiful brass doors that were originally intended to be the entrance to the Capitol building, but there were some problems. First, the doors were too small for the door frame. Second, they couldn't find any hinges strong enough to hold these massive solid brass doors. So now the doors sit in a hallway. Given that, I had to take a picture of the little section of the door honoring the profession of engineering. Maybe next time they should consider involving engineers in the planning of the doors.
Last but not least, we have a picture of a white star in the floor. This is the center of DC, and all street numbering is based off of the location of the star.
The Capitol is beautiful. It really is.
The first thing we saw were these intricate paintings covering the walls and ceilings. Most of it was painted by some artist a long time ago, but he died before finishing, and left lots of blank spaces. The plan is to fill these blank spaces with paintings of more recent important events in American history, but the problem is that no one can agree just what consitutes an important event. So there are a couple of paintings of astronauts, and there are plans to do something about September 11th, but most of blank spaces that the artist left behind will be waiting for a long time. Here's one example of the odd juxtaposition of flowery decoration with modern science:
Every state gets to contribute two statues to the Capitol. Most states have, predictably, gone the Dead White Guy route. I asked Kate, and she thinks that there might be about seven statues of women, total. But most states chose their statues long before we got all enlightened and stuff, so I can't be too critical. I was pleased with Oklahoma's choice of statues. We have Sequoya, who invented the Cherokee written language, and Will Rogers, an all-around cool guy. Some Will Rogers quotes that I like:
"I don't care how little your country is, you got a right to run it like you want to. When the big nations quit meddling then the world will have peace."
"People talk peace. But men give their life's work to war. It won't stop 'til there is as much brains and scientific study put to aid peace as there is to promote war."
"I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat."
"There ought to be one day-- just one-- when there is open season on senators."
"I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts."
And I kind of like that he's slouching in his statue:
And then there were these huge, huge beautiful brass doors that were originally intended to be the entrance to the Capitol building, but there were some problems. First, the doors were too small for the door frame. Second, they couldn't find any hinges strong enough to hold these massive solid brass doors. So now the doors sit in a hallway. Given that, I had to take a picture of the little section of the door honoring the profession of engineering. Maybe next time they should consider involving engineers in the planning of the doors.
Last but not least, we have a picture of a white star in the floor. This is the center of DC, and all street numbering is based off of the location of the star.
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