DC and thoughts on mankind.

Parts of the Berlin Wall

On one of my days of 'museum'ing', I visited the Newseum just off the Mall. This was the exhibition of the news from the putting up of the original barbed wire coiled fence in 1961 to this exhibit of sections of the Wall in Berlin of the 'Western' side. The graffiti was done at night when the East German guards could not see the graffiti artists easily. The scale is extraordinary. Well over 3 meters high.
I remember well the day when the coils went up. I was in Grade 8 at SACS and my history teacher was John Ince. He spoke to us about this and I was lucky enough that my stepdad, Hugo, was able to tell me even more on the Sunday when I went home for the day. Myself and a few friends,
specially Dutoit Hoffman, scoured the newspapers
each morning at Michaelis to see the latest news.

I remember too the coming down of the wall and how we celebrated that in my history classes.

This is from the special exhibition on John Fitzgerald Kennedy. He remains one of the people that I would most want to sit down with and have a long conversation. We were in bed at Rosedale that Friday night and Mr. Whiteford had just switched off Springbok Radio at 10pm and the lights had been out since 9.30pm and suddenly the corridor lights went on and the radio back on. Mr. Whiteford then prowled the corridor while we listened ever more shocked at what we were hearing. Many of us went to
 the ablution block thereafter and stood around aghast
at what had happened talking about this horrible tragedy

It remains a surreal event and I am convinced that Lee Harvey Oswald was a set-up and that others committed the crime. That conversation for another day. Too much does not add up! That was 22/11/1962

Early morning shot of the Capitol from Pennsylvania Avenue as I was on my way to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. It is a mightily impressive building and I still stand in awe of the fact that these simple pioneers who became patriots in 1775, were able to forge a nation such as this and have Jefferson compose this amazing document of the Constitution.

In the Air and Space Museum, I was once again overawed by the American and Russian Space achievements. This Gemini/Soyuz space link-up during the Cold War, remains such an anomaly in the 'Race for space'., but what an achievement with two totally different levels of technology to be able to successfully link up in orbit. Just amazing.

Seeing all the rockets, gear they wore, instrumentation on the ground at Johnson Space Center and on board the craft is mind-boggling to this day. They have many films running or inter-active DVD's on the entire programme, from Goddard to von Braun the V2 to Saturn and Soyuz.

Inside the Capitol Rotunda. The ceiling was painted by an American who, like Michaelangelo, lay on his back most of the time to paint the scene of George Washington surrounded by various people and angels. The frieze immediately below the clerestory windows is painted to seem three-dimensional and it has various events in the history of America from Columbus to the Civil War and is very effective. It is pretty awesome to stand here and view this magnificent dome from below.

I was privileged to be able to sit in on a debate between the Republicans and Democrats in the House of Representatives. As usual, they were talking at cross-purposes about a funding issue for political campaigns. On the one side, the Reps were saying it is a violation of freedom of speech to divulge where campaign money comes from while the Dems were saying that it was a violation of the IRS Bill as well as being potentially damaging to the USA as secret funding could come from the Chinese or Russians or the Taliban to sway the candidate to their bidding. Interesting!

Arlington National Cemetery once again was a hugely emotional journey. I still cannot conceive how mankind has wantonly allowed killing of this magnitude for their ego's, greed, religion or just plain nationalism. How arrogant that anyone; a Ghengis Khan, Julius Caesar, British Colonialist, Roman Catholic Church, the Old Testament, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Putin can actively promote war or kill millions of people over the ages in some misguided idea that they know better. It is insane, totally insane. I don't go for the 'yes but' it was for freedom. Nonesense, I don't buy it. I know this is perhaps a simplistic view, but let us not complicate it any more than it is. Those are dead people under there who died for 'the cause
of freedom' because some maniacs decided to 'break
the peace' for self interest. It is pure arrogance!

I stood and paid my respects to a man, foibles and all, who I admired as a young boy in grade 9 with a history teacher who taught with empathy and gave so many of us a deep love of history, John Ince. JFK has remained as a beacon of change from the World War Two and Depression era's to the Baby Boomer era. And yet, I have the nagging idea in my mind that Lyndon Baines Johnson, the buffoon and liar that he was, had to do with JFK's death. I am convinced, watching his reaction and how so much was covered up, that he knew what was coming. He disliked Kennedy intensely and was a warmonger while JFK was a man of peace. Look at his speech at I think Columbus University in July 1962 where he
questioned the need or indeed the legitimacy of
involvement in Vietnam. He was a dove and LBJ with
his hands in the defence industry was a Hawk.

On this site, overlooking Washington DC, is a ring of granite with extracts of JFK's great speech at his inauguration. A testimony to a man of change and of understanding of the Americans and the world they stood in by 1960. The world reverted to a warmongering place after his demise and who knows how different the world would have been had he been allowed to fulfill his mission on earth. He was human and had his personal weaknesses like we all do, but his life was also beset by tragedy with a stillborn child and the death of infant Patrick shortly after his birth. He also lost his elder brother Joe in a strange event over the Channel in 1944, the man who was being groomed for the presidency. Of course
we all know the massive family tragedies that followed.

At the tomb of the unknown soldier, poignant remembrance of those who died unidentified in battle are remembered every minute of every day. I was privileged to witness the changing of the guard as well as three wreath laying ceremonies with the ringing sound of perfectly played Taps by a trumpeter ringing across this great memorial cemetery to the fallen at Arlington. It is a stark reminder of those who were loved and lost sometimes in remote and horrific conditions in the trenches of WW1 and the beaches of Normandy, the rice paddies of Korea, jungles of Vietnam and dusty wastes of Iraq and Afghanistan. This great cemetery is mirrored in Ypres and Delville Wood,
Normandy and Kursk and in the Killing Fields memorial
in Cambodia and many, many others. A testimony to
man's inhumanity.

At home we have Egyptian Geese and we get ticked off because they leave their multitudinous 'calling cards' on the Memorial field cricket pitch. We complain about 50 Egyptian geese. Here there are hundreds in a single sitting. These ones were particularly ticked off as it was one of the few warm days this winter here that allowed the ice to melt, and the work squads had emptied the vast reflecting pond leading down from the Lincoln Memorial, so they were on the grass in the Mall in their hundreds. Looks like a good source of protein to me for those who lack food! Maybe cynical, but they can taste good if you let them hang for a while first!

This is the remembrance to South Africa for our contribution to the Korean War, another crazy conflict of the Communism vs Capitalism fight in which tens of thousands died and the two halves of the country are still divided with the North being run by an arrogant young man from a supremely arrogant family who are quite happy for their own benefit to allow their country to starve and live in abject poverty. Just compare this to South Korea. Listen to the voices of those who manage to escape while some are caught and executed for wanting personal freedom.

This memorial commemorates Americans killed in battle in Korea. It is a view of a platoon of Marines on patrol, wading through a rice paddy in the winter of the Korean War. The soldiers are lifelike in their expressions and their equipment is accurately portrayed. Once again one thinks of these guys many of whom died because the North 'wanted' the South for personal and ideological as well as economic reasons. And still the war continues on that demilitarized 'line' in the sand that constitutes the 'ceasefire line' of 1954 with soldiers of each sides staring inanely at each other across the bridge.

Finally, the Vietnam Memorial. The Black 'scar' in the earth with over 58 thousand young American boys, yes many were 17 and 18 years old with the youngest American being 15! What a totally mismanaged war it turned out to be. many books have been written about the incompetency, about the seriously flawed decisions and tactics employed by General Westmoreland and not only in hindsight, but at the time as well. I still remember Walter Cronkites roundly critical news address during the Battle of TET in 1968 and LBJ's reply; " If I have lost Walter, I have lost America!". Yes, LBJ, you should not have lied to start it with the USS Maddox 'affair'!