We’re From Lincoln

My Dad used to sing a song from his day camp as a kid in Lincoln park.  It went

“We’re from Lincoln, mighty might Lincoln

Where ever we go, the people want to know

Who we are, so we tell them

We’re from Lincoln, mighty mighty Lincoln!”

Growing up in the state of Illinois, Michelle and I know everything about Lincoln.  Every Illini took at least three trips to Springfield during grammar school.  I had many classes in Lincoln Hall at UofI and rubbed the nose of Lincoln’s bust before tests in the auditorium of that great living monument.  All of our history classes focused on Lincoln’s politics and policies.  And just last year my family took a trip to the Lincoln Museum in Springfield just for fun.  The point is that when we arrived in DC, I couldn’t help but feel a pride and connection to our 16th President.

The first Friday night that we had here, we decided to take a walk down around the Washington Monument.  It was a beautiful evening and the tall stone structure towered prominently over The Mall.  Even though I had been to DC twice before, I never had walked up to the monument.  It is beautiful when lit in the middle of the night.  The juxtaposition of the luminous white stone and Stars and Stripes is superb.  It is hard to believe that the tower was started before the Civil War (You will notice the different shade of stone about 1/3 of the way up the structure due to a halt in building during the war).  Grabbing an idea from tourists, we found that standing up against it and looking up is kind of neat to do.

After appreciating that monument, Michelle and I decided to walk west towards our self made man.  On the way, we stopped to stand between the White House and Jefferson’s monument.  Story has it that after FDR built it, First Lady Eleanor said, “I want to see Thomas” and the President authorized all of the trees between their house and the monument be cut down.  I’ve always enjoyed that little story.

Moving further west, we came upon the WWII monument.  The water was beautiful and you really can hardly believe the simplicity and intricacy involved in the design.  One aspect I love is that when you look from east to west, the pool is clearly an oval, yet when looking from north to south, it looks a perfect circle.  I seem to recall the designer doing this to emulate how the war was fought across the world in the Atlantic and the Pacific, but when looking from the perspective from one location of the war, the other battlefield across the world was integrally important.  It’s hard to explain, but when viewing the monument with one’s own eyes it all seems to make sense.  The most astounding part of the place is the Field of Stars representing 400,000 lives lost.  It’s just unbelievable.

Later on, we kept walking west to Abraham.  We walked along the Reflecting Pool and talked about how amazing it must have been to see all of the people around when Dr. King made his speech on the steps at the end of the Mall.  It is a far walk and I remember not feeling like we made any progress every time I looked back to get some perspective.  Finally, we arrived at Lincoln.

How cool to see the sculpture up close.  You can actually see it all the way from the other end of the Mall from the steps of the Capitol pretty clearly.  I just recently discovered that the sculptor, Daniel Chestor French, was also the sculptor of the World’s Columbian Exposition’s Republic.  Lincoln seems so “Lincoln” in the piece.  Every characteristic he has ever been described is emulated in the statue.  I was so proud to stand in the memorial and felt like we deserved to stand there.  We put in our time committing Lincoln’s legacy to memory.  He is what Milton would have described as the “one just man” of his time and he is OUR guy, from Illinois.  Michelle and I both read the Gettysburg Address and the Second Inaugural Address on the side walls.  I read every line twice.  There is something about reading them in that place, it makes the words more real.  The words were simply beautiful and God honoring.  I guess I’m oozing over this experience because I didn’t hype myself up for it, I just really felt that good old American pride while we were standing there.

On our walk back east to the car, we made a stop to the Vietnam Wall.  It just makes you awestruck.  It is so subdued in every way and it is very easy to not think twice about it even when looking directly at all of the names.  The exact opposite of the WWII memorial.  That’s all I’ve got to say about that.

Fast forwarding to the following weekend.  Michelle found an ad in the Washington Examiner (my favorite local paper with a Newt Gingrich article every Friday) for Walking Town DC.  Twice a year, the city offers free walking tours all over the city to take advantage of.  Keeping in stride with Mr. Lincoln, we took a tour with Ms. Elizabeth Keckley, well an actress who played her.  She was a friend and seamstress of Mary Todd Lincoln.  Before setting up her own clothing business where she made dresses for many prominent Northern and Southern politicians and their wives, she was a slave.  She married and was able to buy her freedom.  Her life was fascinating and she wrote a book called Behind the Scenes describing her time around the White House.  Michelle is reading the book now which, oddly enough, my grandma bought for me last year at the Lincoln Museum in Springfield.  The actress who played the role was phenomenal, probably the best tour we could have picked.

Later that same afternoon, we took another tour to Barracks Row which is on 8th Street along the famous and long standing Marine Barracks.  This was the place to be throughout DC’s history.  Just to put into perspective the significance of this place, every President except Nixon visited the barracks at one point in their Presidency, including Obama and 30 day term Harrison.   This tour was good, but not as good as the first.  We learned about the architecture, significance in city planning, and general history of the street.  When walking back to our place, we saw Jesse Jackson Jr. having lunch at Matchbox (a pizza place I will review).  That was amusing.

So, you can see that we are taking advantage of what the city has to offer.  We have much further to go and will keep on trucking until it has all been seen!

-George and Michelle the Lincoln Learned

Having Fun Walking Town

Ms. Keckley’s Still Standing Home

Story on Pennsylvania Avenue

Reading of “Behind the Scenes”

Barracks Row Tour