Jackie Papandrew

I traveled from Florida to Washington, D.C. recently, which in August is akin to jumping from the frying pan into the fire. The weather in our nation’s capital was stormy and sizzling, rather like the apparent mood of many people in our country right now.

We visited the Lincoln Memorial, where the statue of Honest Abe seemed to be looking sternly toward Capitol Hill, home of the U.S. Congress. You can hardly blame President Lincoln if he’s a bit unhappy with an institution that is about as well-regarded at the moment as John Wilkes Booth. Too bad our 16th president couldn’t shift his gaze a little and check out the nearby National Museum of American History, which is where we went after paying our respects to Lincoln. At the museum, you can be inspired seeing the desk Thomas Jefferson used to draft the Declaration of Independence and the sword George Washington carried during the war to win that independence. You can shake your head in amazement looking at Lewis and Clark’s compass, Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine, Helen Keller’s touch watch and the nugget that began the California Gold Rush. You can be enlightened by Edison’s light bulb and Julia Child’s kitchen. You can be saddened staring at a runaway slave ad or General Custer’s coat, as well as Grant and Lee’s chairs from the Civil War surrender at Appomattox. Or you can enjoy the memories brought back by seeing Dorothy’s ruby slippers, Mr. Rogers’ sweater, Archie Bunker’s bedraggled chair and Jerry Seinfeld’s puffy shirt. You can even see the top hat Lincoln was wearing the night he was assassinated, although he might want to skip that part of the museum.

My favorite item was the 30-foot-high flag that inspired our national anthem. Housed in a special enclosure to protect it, The Star-Spangled Banner looks pretty banged-up – faded, frayed, even torn in several places. But standing there before it, listening to the song that it brought forth, I felt certain it would last for a long time.

Just before we left D.C. that day, we had the opportunity to visit Arlington National Cemetery and watch the Changing of the Guard at The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The Tomb is guarded round the clock and treated with the utmost respect, and when the relief commander asked the watching crowd to stand and be silent for the ceremony, we did just that. At the same moment, the dark clouds that had been threatening all day finally burst open with one humdinger of a thunderstorm. Most of us did not have umbrellas, but we stood there anyway, unwilling to disrupt the solemnity of the event.

Until, that is, a particularly loud clap of thunder sent us running like the lily-livered civilians that we are. The soldiers, of course, did not falter, completing the guard change without any concession to the weather. Watching them from the shelter of a nearby building, I thought of the morose-looking Lincoln and wished I could reassure him. I think, Mr. President, that we’re going to be alright.

Jackie Papandrew is a writer/editor whose writings have won awards from Parenting Publications of America, America’s Funniest Humor Press and American Business Media.