The primary issue that started the civil war was whether or not to allow new states entering the union to be slave states.  The southern states were in favor of allowing the entering state to decide whether or not it would allow slaves while the northern states did not want to allow any new states to own slaves.  South Carolina believed that the federal government was exercising power that the constitution did not expressly provides and thus believed that slavery should be an issue decided by a state government.  When the federal government continued to not admit states to union if they would hold slaves the southern states succeeded from the union and civil war began.

President Lincoln was an effective leader but clearly overstepped the fine line between federal government powers and those powers reserved for the states.  It is interesting to see how different parts of the country interpret the war.

I visited Mt. Vernon which was Washington’s personal estate, here he had built a thriving farm and was completely self-reliant.  He was an engineer in his day and invented a simple method to remove wheat from chaff.  Washington also used storm drains and semi-modern storm water drainage system around his farm.  Washington was resourceful, and was successful in farming before the infrastructure of the country had begin to develop.

Washington knew that if America was to thrive then the country must invest in agricultural production.  He proved to be a excellent President and without his leadership America may not be the country it is today.

I saw a similar story at NASA Goddard, they are spending billions of dollars on a satellite that, they hope, will be able to pinpoint how old the earth really is.  Why does it matter?  We have lived this long without knowing how old the earth is so why do we need to figure out now.  This is a program that costs the taxpayers billions of the dollars each year and provides no real tangible benefit except a single use satellite.

Needless to say I did not feel confident in government’s ability to manage anything as I visited with the Consumer Product and Safety Commission.  The CPSC is a regulatory agency that is responsible for minimizing consumer hazards, they oversee consumer goods like cleaning chemicals, toys strollers, car seats, and clothing.  Chairman Tannenbaum met with our group briefly and gave a few words of wisdom and then she turned us over to the engineering department.  The engineers explained what they did for the department and some of the challenges that they face.  The engineers said that the commission had no lawyers and that it was the engineers responsibility to not only pinpoint problems with consumer products but to also work with companies to correct these issues.

I was amazed that the engineers at the CPSC carried this type of workload.  It seemed to me by this remark that the commission had cut out the middle man, being the lawyers.  This government efficiency impressed me with the structure of the CPSC.  Why don’t some other government agencies follow suit.

I recently visited the Holocaust museum in Washington DC and was amazed at the detail of the museum.  For example, they had walls of photographs of all the Jews in various villages before the Holocaust and under each photo there was a brief sentence about what happened to that person.  The museum also contained exhibits like a room full of the shoes of those who went into the gas chambers, and a rail car that was used to transport prisoners to the concentration camps.  It is hard to believe that a group of people could take over a country and commit such an atrocity.

Toward the end of the museum there were videos of General Eisenhower and his troops liberating death camps.  They found starving men and women and thousands of corpses, so many they had to push them with a bulldozer.  How the American troops handled moving into the death camps and how all the sick and hungry were loaded into American military ambulances, they were treated like they were are own made me extremely proud of our country.  Eisenhower then ordered all the German citizens to tour the death camp, many were crying and upset at the sight of the death camp.

After a busy day of touring the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms as well as NASA Goddard it was time for a fun night with good company.  With tickets to Shear Madness at the Kennedy center in hand and a reservation at Rotti Banshe, six students from the southwest set out for a good time. 

We departed the hotel and rode the metro, shoulder to shoulder, to the foggy bottom stop.  We got off the train and found a small basement restaurant under the George Mason University Inn. 
Our party was promptly seated even though our reservation was misplaced.  The room was quiet and intimate with dim lighting and modern china.  It was just what the doctor ordered for relaxation after a long day.

I orded a glazed pork chop with fluffed sweet potatoes, the beer menu featured a blonde belgium beer but I did not order it because I was the only person of age.  It didn’t take me long to cut into the chop, once it arrived, it had a sweet taste.

Upon the conclusion of dinner we continued to the Kennnedy center.  Shear Madness, started at eight, it was a murder mystery set in a salon owned by a gay man.  The play was funny but the humor required a knowledge of current events.  Most of the audience was middle school aged kids and they laughed when we laughed.

On the metro ride back to Bethesda we happened to run into one of the professors who organized the trip to Washington, normally he does not say much.  At the dupont circle stop he dared us, as the doors closed, to jump off the train and get dessert.  We barely made it off the train and when we did he told us about his masters degree over Krispy Kreme.

It was a good night.

On June 1st 1945 President Harry S. Truman delivered a speech to Congress which summarized Allied success in Europe, he then brought forward a plan to occupy Japan.  Throughout the speech the President is honest with Congress and the American people.  He states that during the battle for Okinawa that the Army lost 3603 men, the Marines lost 1889, the Navy and Coast guard lost 4729, a total of 10,221 solders.   Despite the tremendous death toll, President Truman addressed Congress with confidence that the Allied forces would occupy Japan.  He emphasized how the war had increased in “toughness” and would continue to do so until America declared victory.

A recurring theme which stood out in the President’s speech was giving credit to those who contributed to the war effort.  He credited Roosevelt for his leadership in developing the most powerful military in the world, and for leading the Allied forces in destroying Hitler’s fortress.  Truman also credits the chairman of the war production committee for his leadership in producing enough armaments and supplies to keep the Allied forces moving through Europe and Asia.

He continues  by crediting American troops and those who fought alongside them.  It was these troops who carried the burden of the battle which led to the complete destruction of the enemy.  Truman did not claim credit for the victories or the plans to occupy Japan, but he was quick give credit to those who had dedicated their time and in most cases their lives to the success of the Allies.

This notion of a politician crediting others is unheard of in Washington, the politicians blame each other for all the failures and the glory for the successes.  For example, when Osama Bin Laden was killed by US forces in Pakistan President Obama delivered a speech to the nation where he continually used the single letter “I”.  Obama deserves the credit for giving the go ahead which led to the death of Osama, but he should have given credit to those who worked much harder then he did or every will to rid the world of the threat of terror.

Just today I visited with Senator Inhofe of Oklahoma who has served as a representative for 17 years.  Even though I agreed with most of the things the senator discussed like increasing defense spending and improving infrastructure, I was appalled at how he saw politics.  Inhofe seemed to make every issue a democrat verse republican battle he said over and over again “We beat them.”  Not once did he give a democratic senator or house member credit for solving a problem.

It appears to me that our elected officials should work together to solve problems instead of bickering and refusing to agree on issues that are important to the American people simply because of party lines.  They have been elected to serve the US citizens, but instead they seem to be serving themselves, their egos, and their campaign budgets.  What happened to the era of politics where the first priority was leading the country to success no matter who got the credit?

In the rush of finding a seat on my 830 Southwest Airlines  flight I claimed what I thought was a perfect aisle seat on an empty row.   It was only after takeoff that I realized my seat not only did not recline but was angled somewhat forward as it was infront of the emergency exit.  Slightly irritated that I had been had by the seat fairy of Southwest Airlines I proceed to put on my headphones and listen to the second chapter of the “7 Habits of Highly Successful People.”

The second chapter was the precursor to the author explaining the first of the seven rules and focused on paradigms and how when changed can effect the way we interrupt the world.  The author gave an example of a man on a subway train in New York City who had two young children.  The children were misbehaving and being disruptive, so another passenger calmly asked the man if he could quiet his children.  The man replied “I am sorry we just left the hospital, their mother died.”  The annoyed passenger’s paradigm was completely changed, he went from annoyed to sympathetic.  The way we see the world is a direct reflection of our paradigm.

This example made me think about the TSA agent who took his job a little to seriously (see my last post).  My paradigm was that the TSA agents are somewhat useless and just meant to be a pain to weary travelers.  I let my small discomforts control my paradigm.  After understanding the example given in the book I tried to transform my paradigm.  Instead of seeing the agents as a pest I tried to internalize that they were in the airport to protect travelers and the American public from threats of terror.  This put the seemingly egotistical agent in perspective, maybe all the agents should act like him.  Even under this paradigm I do not see any reason for threatening passengers, as this agent did the elderly woman.

Finally our plane landed in DC and we started the trek to a small independent hotel in Bethsda.  The Bethsda Motor Court Hotel is a nice break from the high rises and crowded elevators, it offers clean rooms, a small breakfast, friendly staff, and an amazing courtyard complete with adorondack chairs (where I am typing this post).

After checking into the room the group went out and ate dinner.  Myself and two other friends went next door to the hotel to a small jazz restaurant named the Woodmont Grill.  I splurged on the broiled sea-bass stuffed with buttered crab, needless to say I was not disappointed with the food.  It was elegant, and made for a satisfying first meal in Bethsda.