STORY of a city is not just a story about courage and triumph. The story of a city is a story about human beings and find a balance dinamic each other. In humans there are competing and fighting over space in the city. Even in the capital of a country POWER like the United States (U.S.).
A month ago, I traveled to Washington DC with several friends. We entered the city after driving a Greyhound bus from Pittsburgh and Columbus. We both have never been to this city. We are equally bound by the desire for adventure and exploration in the heart of this land of Uncle Sam. Armed with a piece of in-print maps via the Internet, and we wandered through the streets of this city.
Of course, we do not want to focus on the beauty and elegance of the look. We want to penetrate the heart of this, look at the pulse rate and blood flow, and witnessed firsthand how the cells are like the pieces had been building up this city. Our adventure with mediocre funds in order to see instantly the other side of town, that has not been revealed to the public, but exist as part of contemporary history.
We entered the town amid the drizzle. We stopped to rest at the station Amtrax. At that time, a man asked me to come talk. He was familiar pretentious. I replied simply. He wore shabby clothes and holding a plastic bundle containing clothing. It seems, he shared some of her friends have nowhere to live. In America, they called them the menggelandnag the homeless on the streets. Meeting with this man be the beginning for me to see something that does not directly revealed to the public eye a lot. Is this the face of the United States?
City streets is not so wide. The buildings are also not how high. This is the heart of Capitol Hill that became a symbol of U.S. politics. I saw a round dome, dome like a mosque, or too similar to the dome Synagog Jews. At the top of the dome is a statue of women as a symbol of freedom. Sculptor Thomas Crawford, a lover of women who are willing to be burned by a sense of passion, put the statue on behalf of the freedom of his overwhelming. Is the woman synonymous with freedom?
In front of the building, stretched a broad meadow that leads to a monument called the Washington Monument. This obelisk-shaped monument, which is the child of Egyptian culture. Some friends of Indonesia called Monas, because a similar shape in the form of monument towering mast upright. But if the building is not possible to imitate Monas. Because this building was founded in 1840 which aims to commemorate the name of George Washington as the father of the republic and the founding fathers (founding father) the United States. The question hanging dibenakku, why should the obelisk-shaped? Why not take the form of a dug out of the realm of American culture itself? Did not the Mayan buildings mighty enough to be an inspiration for the creation of the monument?
Amazed to see that, I then traced the pasture with a pond in the middle. According to the instructions contained in, the pool was named Reflective Pond. Swimming is a square and obelisk monument is relate to the building bsar named Lincoln Memorial. With friends, I moved toward the Lincoln Memorial and saw the statue of Abraham Lincoln.
I imagine that in the eyes of this man lay on the affection of black people to make himself a martyr in 1865. Kutembus eyes felt like it and unravel the history of U.S. slavery, since the arrival of British immigrants until the arrival of the ship May Flower who brought the blacks of Africa. How great is my desire to trace the footsteps of slavery which is then removed with a bloodied by Lincoln, U.S. President of all time in her growing poverty in Kentucky and Indiana in 1818.
There are many buildings in Washington DC that aims to preserve the memory of the figure of the president. Not only the Lincoln Memorial, there were Thomas Jefferson, Kennedy, to Benjamin Franklin. The president has made a memorial so that their minds remain immortal in history. In some literature that I read, every establishment of a statue, monument, or building giant never be separated from the political workings of memory. Each nation will set up a monument to preserve a certain memory on top of the figure, one incident, a place, or a piece a reality through the buildings.
We might say that the president is positioned similar to the monks whose teachings enshrined in the book, his figure immortalized in a statue, and is expected to be the inspiration for subsequent generations. We can also examine the nation's history begins from the period when the president is present. Before that, they do not have a history of an important note or not there is one event that can inspire the American people. Yup. This is the dynamics or the politicization of history. Sorry for myself I have not been able to explore this idea further ore. As far as Eric Wolf, author of Europe and the People Without History, able to explain what happened here.
The city is a symbol of glory and save a lot of greatness. Are all the views presented here are about the power? Apparently not. When passing in front of the Ronald Reagan World Center, we saw a large field filled with tents and movement activists occupy Washington. In the tent there are many actors and social movements of the poor who are demanding their rights. They call themselves the 99% to symbolize that they are from the majority of the country demanding their right to control group 1% of the economy. They shouted in fury, he said the economy is referred to as the source of poverty residents.
This time, again increasing my conception of this country. The glory and splendor of the outside appearance of the cover is just what is going on here. Greatness is just a lipstick to cover the fact that keeping the case here also that poverty. I remember that guy I met at the station, the man who stayed on the sidelines of the building is only armed with blankets and plastic clothes, to the poor who join in this field.
This is Washington where there are two sides of a coin; no grandeur or glory, but there is also a life of poverty like weeds in between the wall power. This is the city's wealthy residents have been exploring the world and leaving a trail of glory, while the poor citizens to fight for the middle of a bite of rice that still exist. Washington is full of the triumph of memory, but at the same time a sad memory of the town, as sadness citizens who fight for life. The glorious city of Washington, as well as a gloomy city.