Memorials to Cyncism on the Capital Mall

We didn’t get a chance to go to the new memorial this weekend, but we’ll try again soon and post pics to the blog.
I’ve been at the FDR memorial and there’s a fascinating article about it in Reason
The land on which the memorial stands is in fact composed of mud dredged from the Tidal Basin in the late 19th century. The unstable topography, still settling, could not support the structure’s massive weight, so a reinforced concrete deck over 900 steel pilings driven 100 feet into the ground was built as a foundation. In his commemorative account, The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, Halprin assures us that despite its vast expanse and ambitious engineering, the memorial “feels as if it’s part of the earth.”
In short, the memorial casually symbolizes federal bloat at the end of the century. An elephantine governmental structure that took more than 50 years to be realized (the first resolution to build a memorial to FDR was introduced into Congress in 1946), the monument is discretely disguised such that it appears to have always been an integral, even natural feature of our American landscape.
The memorial is full of cheesy, propogandistic statements by FDR at every corner. What’s sad is that the same can be said of most every other monument on the mall. For example, the Jefferson memorial, built in 1936, has written only the first part of this quote:
“Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate than that these people are to be free. Nor is it less certain that the two races, equally free, cannot live in the same government. Nature, habit, opinion has drawn indelible lines of distinction between them.”
When I visited the Arlington National Cemetary, I never realized that it was Robert E. Lee’s (and his wife, Mary Anna) a descendant of Washington who had their house, Arlington House , taken away from them, illegally, as a spoils of war. Later, the supreme court agreed with them but, by then, General Lee and his wife were dead and bodies were planted (literally) in their flower bed! So, basically, the most hallowed grounds of U.S. war dead are on land stolen from their bravest citizens (the ironies are amazing, eh?) JFK has his “immortal flame” set up by his wife. Yeah, there’s something for environmentalists to consider: While other presidents rest quietly, media-proclaimed “American Royalty” insists upon wasting petrol fuels forever. How about a solar powered lamp or fountain?
There are numerous theories that the White House has secret tunnels to a variety of places including fru-fru restaurants in the district. True story: 15 years ago, a group of friends and I went to D.C. to see a film at the Smithstonian ( The Wizard of Space and Time ) and didn’t arrive until 9PM. So we had a late night tour of the mall and being a little drunk, decided to take a tour of the white house. Would you believe they were closed? So naturally one of us started trying to credit card his way through the gate. A huge guard came out and said, and I quote: “That’s very very naughty! You all have a good night!” and walked back to his post. We noticed the homeless outside the gates appeared just a bit too clean and well fed… Those were different times.

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