Recently, Nina and I were in Washington, D.C., for the first time in several years. We visited a lot of places that inspired many thoughts, not just about our nation but also about your business as remodelers.
A Compendium of the Media
The Newseum is a living museum about the media and our country and its relationship to the world. It “lives” in part because the news never stops; one of the Newseum’s popular features is a collection, updated daily, of newspaper front pages from around the country.
We were there for a long time because the history of our country is fascinating.
Our country is very complicated, like anything that involves a lot of people and ideas. I found it reassuring to see how the United States of America has dealt with challenges of all kinds and not succumbed to them. That gives me hope.
A New Museum
The newest museum on the Mall is the National Museum of African American History and Culture. It’s so popular that Nina had to secure two timed tickets so we would be sure to get into the museum.
The lower three floors, which are about the history of black people in American from the 1400s to the present, were tough to experience.
To be so persecuted and abused because of being a different color than white people is hard to truly “get” in our day-to-day lives. This museum does a powerful job of putting you in the midst of all that.
It was inspiring to see attendees of all colors and creeds slowly and deliberately making their way through these exhibits.
We spent so much time in those three floors that we had very little time to visit the upper three floors, which celebrate all the different ways African-Americans have contributed to shape our country, our culture and all of us in it. We need to go back.
A Memorial
One morning we went to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, which was built after our last visit.
It is an appropriately imposing memorial for such a great man. The statue of him is on a massive piece of stone that has been cut and pushed forward from the “mountain” that remains behind him.
Two wing walls behind his statute contain some of his most powerful and moving words.
There was a group of what looked like middle school students getting their picture taken in front of the memorial.
Many of them were wearing “Make America Great Again” hats.
Nina and I wondered if they knew how different Martin Luther King, Jr. and our current leader are.
Our country’s capital is amazing. I don’t think there is a similar place, one filled with so many museums and monuments in one relatively small area, anywhere in the world.
Go visit it. See things you think you might not be interested in. Encourage your employees to visit it. Let’s embrace all our differences because they are the source of our country’s strength.