Our Voice
Some members of The Colonnade’s staff traveled to Washington D.C. last week for a national journalism conference, so we would bring back ways to improve The Colonnade and make us a better publication for our readers. And we’ve brought back plenty of ideas, and if nothing else, inspiration and a renewed vigor for our jobs.
There was something else about Washington D.C. as well, something that we were discussing in a hurried discussion on our way to catch the Metro. We had just come from the Vietnam War Memorial, and before that we had been at the Lincoln Memorial, and before that we had seen the World War II Memorial, and before that we’d stood in the shadow of The Washington Monument, so we were soaking up what we had seen.
We all agreed on one thing: we certainly felt humbled standing in the presence of all these national landmarks. Standing before a 20 foot statue of Abraham Lincoln, reading the names of the thousands dead in Vietnam etched into polished marble, and looking at the wreaths and flowers still placed there daily by families of the fallen really helped to give us some perspective.
The truth is, we were forced (but that is a completely different story) to leave the Vietnam War Memorial. It was one of the hardest things we had ever had to do. As we read the individual names of the Americans who gave their life in Vietnam something struck us: the names were no different than those of our friends and family, these were regular, everyday people.
The World War II monument, while it does not include the names of the over 400,000 who gave their lives to the cause, struck the idea of America in us. With the listing of all the states and national territories it shows just how lucky we are to be Americans. We are lucky to live in a free country and be able to do the things we love to do (for example publishing this newspaper), that in many countries the citizens cannot do these things.
These monuments were erected as an honor to those who came before us, and they do so gracefully and respectfully. To stand inside Lincoln’s monument and read the words of the greatest orator of his time was chilling and shocking to see how, while the issues may be different, his words still have meaning today. Those words led this country in its single greatest struggle and we were awe-stuck by their power and wisdom.
Also on our walk back to the Metro Station we passed the White House, and were able to see for the first time in person where the Big Man lives, the man who more often than not we roast in our paper.
This too set us to thinking. Sure, we may disagree with the man, and with his policies, but how much do we know? Would we be able to hold a country together under circumstances like this? We realized standing in the face of the monuments how small we really are, and realizing how much power the man in the White House holds magnified him to a massive size.
Maybe, we thought, we (as individuals, not as a newspaper) should be a little nicer to the guy, who’s going through a hellish presidency and may go down in the records as one of the least popular presidents ever, because we’d certainly crack under the pressure.
On a lighter note, what else did we learn? We learned that parking at the Atlanta Airport is rotten, flying standby isn’t so bad after all, and that the Metro Rail in Washington doesn’t run after midnight on weekdays. Practical, useful knowledge
We made it a point to go to Washington to learn something. Now that we’re back, we’re pretty sure we have.
Posted by Colonnade Archives
on Nov 1 2007. Filed under Opinion, Our Voice.
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