by Stephen P. Pizzo
http://www.stephen.pizzo.com
Yesterday's insurrection at our Capitol startled and depressed me in several ways. But mostly it sent my mind back a quarter-century or more.
When I awoke this morning I found myself musing about my early days as a reporter...back in the late 80s and thru the 90s ... when I traveled often to DC. It was, of course, way before 9/11, and the Capitol was wide open.
If I had business at the Capitol, I would just bounce up the steps and walk right into the rotunda, no metal detectors, nothing. One day, a friend with a House aide dragged me to the dead center of the rotunda and pointed up to the dome. "Whenever I get discouraged with how things go around here," he said, "I come and stand here and I look up. At that moment I tell myself, 'I am standing on the most powerful spot on the planet.'"
And I felt it. It felt pretty damn good.
Then he took me to an obscure corner of the rotunda and opened an equally obscure door. Behind it, very old and worn white marble steps descended. Before I could step forward he grabbed my arm and said, "Wait, I want you to know something about these steps. Abe Lincoln used these steps whenever he came to the Capitol." I stepped down them as slowly and full of purpose as I have ever walked down any set of steps. And it felt amazing to be so personally in touch with that particular part of our history.
Then I rambled around in the bowels of the Capitol until I came upon the trolly that takes members of congress the short hop from the Capitol to their offices across the street. I was heading there any way to interview a member of the House, so I jumped aboard. There I was, this insignificant little reporter, sitting arm to arm with members of Congress, one among equal travelers.
Again, no one stopped me. No one challenged me. The Capitol...the "People's House" was open to the people. Wide-open. And I felt that ownership.
The same conditions existed over at the Rayburn building where I was headed. I jumped into an elevator where, once again, the high and mighty and the lowly, stood arm to arm, equals, if for only a minute. The doors opened into long shiny white marble hallways that stretched on and on. American and state flags stood outside each member's office door. And all those doors were wide open. I could, and did, walk into any of them I chose and was greeted politely and professionally by a receptionist.
Of course, after 9/11 all that changed in an instant. And now, after yesterday, security will be tightened another dozen notches as American of old goes into the history books and the new security state is further reinforced. With each tightening caused by acts of terror, Americans are pushed farther and farther away from their House, their Senate, their White House, their Supreme Court. And this during a time when what's needed is for Americans to be able to feel what I felt all those years ago...a sense of pride and ownership.
It's all unimaginable ... but in light of what happened yesterday, sadly unavoidable. For example, if the Secret Service is not talking about moving Biden's inauguration indoors, they are making a big mistake. These right-wing nutters know all about sniper rifles, and some own them. Surely some of those who participated in yesterday's riot are veterans of our Middle Eastern wars, so they know all about snipers.
Well, anyway, thanks for letting me stretch out on your couch and get all this off my chest. I may not have liked covering G. W. Bush or the WH antics of Bill Clinton, but I sure did like Washington DC of those times.
It made me feel proud, rather than ashamed and apprehensive.
