Tulsa World: Four days, four nights

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Four days, four nights
Remembering Washington with awe

The Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. stock.xchng/Courtesy

By WAYNE GREENE Editorial Writer
Published: 11/8/2009 2:25 AM
Last Modified: 11/8/2009 3:57 AM

The limit of human legs is bounded by these words: Four days and four nights to see Washington D.C.

During a recent trip there I squeezed in the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, the U.S. Capitol, the White House, the Supreme Court, the Library of Congress, the National Museum of American History, the National Portrait Gallery, the National Museum of the American Indian, the National Air and Space Museum, the Washington Monument, the Lincoln, Roosevelt, World War II, Korean War and Vietnam War Memorials, Arlington National Cemetery, Sen. Tom Coburn's famous townhouse on C Street and a performance of "Much Ado about Nothing" at the Folger Shakespeare Library.

"Did you make it to Holocaust Museum?" a friend asked my first day back in the office.

No, I did not, giving him the skunk eye.

Everyone has their own idea of what belongs on the must-see list for a trip to Washington.

In case you're wondering, I also had to skip the Newseum, the Hirshhorn, the Smithsonian Castle, Ford's Theater, the National Museum of African Art, the National Museum of Natural History, the National Zoo, the National Botanic Garden, the National Aquarium, the Sackler Gallery, the National Sculpture Garden, Wolf Trap, Mount Vernon, the Iwo Jima Memorial, the Pentagon and about half of the World Series broadcasts on TV.

I had wanted to eat lunch at the National Press Club and catch a show at the Kennedy Center, but neither of those things happened either.

In

the end, four days is not enough to comprehend Washington. I'm not sure four weeks would have sufficed.

As it was, I tried to do too much.

Here's what I can now remember of the one hour that I allotted to the National Museum of American History: The star-spangled banner that flew over Fort McHenry, the blood-stained cuffs of the nurse who attended to Abraham Lincoln the night he was shot and the draft of Franklin Roosevelt's Dec. 8, 1941, address to Congress including the place where he marked out "world history" and inserted in pencil the word "infamy." (Editors rule!)

I skipped Archie Bunker's chair, Evel Knievel's Harley and Dorothy's ruby slippers. There just wasn't time. I was in a hurry to see as much of it as possible.

Four days and four nights.

Awesome: The Lincoln Memorial made me slow down.

It is altogether fitting and proper to visit the memorial in 2009, I heard a U.S. Park Ranger say in his prepared 11 a.m. presentation at the great emancipator's feet. 2009 is the 200th anniversary of Lincoln's birth and the memorial itself was dedicated in 1922 — four score and seven years ago.

The ranger spoke for a half hour, slowly and thoroughly, and I hadn't made it to the Vietnam Wall yet, but I waited patiently and wanted more when it was over.

The Lincoln experience at the Lincoln Memorial is so overwhelming that you can't rush through it.

We throw the word "awesome" around a lot in the contemporary day.

Teeny bloggers write it of Ashlee Simpson's new single. My waiter used it the other night after I answered "Fine," in response to his question about the quality of my pizza.

I'm more parsimonious with my awe.

I have experienced the Grand Canyon, and it is awesome.

I haven't experienced the Sistine Chapel, but I imagine it to be awesome.

So, those two ... and the Lincoln Memorial.

In a city where scale starts at the top of the charts and moves upward, the Lincoln Memorial is simply gigantic.

The ranger said if he took off his hat he could walk under President Lincoln's leg and not have to duck. Of course that was hypothetical. The ranger would have been the first one to tackle anyone who tried to test that idea.

In fact, he stopped his speech at one point to shoo some picture-posers off molding on the building's north wall, where the Gettysburg Address is chiseled.

On the opposite side, the wall displays Lincoln's second inaugural address, the one about "malice toward none, with charity for all."

The ranger quoted the first inaugural speech — the one that sought to appeal to the "better angels" of the nation's nature — from memory before he turned to the words engraved over Lincoln's head.

"In this temple," it says, "as in the hearts of the people for whom he saved the union, the memory of Abraham Lincoln is enshrined forever."

Lincoln recognized his own human frailties and would have been uncomfortable with words like shrine and temple, the ranger said.

His point: Lincoln was a great leader, but made of the same stuff as you and I. Each of us, the ranger said, could potentially be the next great leader that a grateful nation honored with a magnificent memorial.

Flotsam memorial: Maybe, but I have to differ a bit from my favorite ranger on this point.

As I walked back to our hotel, I wrote a love note to my wife on the back of a leaf and threw it back onto the National Mall.

The Greene Memorial — my elm leaf missive to my own better angel — probably didn't last four score and seven minutes before some nature turned it into mulch, which is OK by me.

I'm adjusted to the fact that the world will little note nor long remember the Greenes.

But the Lincoln Memorial will always be hallowed ground, not just because of its architectural magnificence, but because of the man at its center — Abraham Lincoln, the great emancipator and the man who saved the union.

Now, he was awesome.

Wayne Greene 581-8308
wayne.greene@tulsaworld.com By WAYNE GREENE Editorial Writer

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	Report Comment 2ndjoyce, BA (11/8/2009 4:13:31 PM) Awesome read, Wayne. I love your love note written on a leaf. Noted and not forgotten.
	Report Comment Thunder196, Tulsa (11/8/2009 8:15:13 AM) Wow, this brought back memories. High school trip. Some of those memorials weren't there yet. I have since seen some of these places through the eyes of an adult. The Lincoln Memorial is listed on my profile page. It was the one that made the greatest impact, as a teen and as an adult. . The other one that made a lasting impression, is Arlington Cemetery. When I close my eyes I can see the rows of the head stones, the alignment that occurs, when looked upon, from any direction. That reminds me of the sacrifices that were made, so we can enjoy the freedoms we still have.
	Report Comment Respighi, (11/8/2009 7:49:49 AM) I had forgotten how much there is to see in Washington. I last visited the city back in the early 70s. I would love to go again.
	Report Comment GARFIELD, TULSA (11/8/2009 3:13:19 PM) Were I to visit D.C. I would want to see the Holocaust Museum early--to remind me of all the hate and malice in the world--and to not forget that it is just simmering everywhere, even in 'religious' pockets like Tulsa.

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