Sparkly's and Stinky's Memorial Day in DC - at The Wall (long/pic heavy)

[Stinky The Clown]

Hi. I'm Stinky The Clown and I'm married to the world's only living Sparkly Fairy Princess. We live in what was America and today we visited what remains of our heritage on America's National Mall.

We went to DC today to visit The Wall, but mostly to visit the new WWII Memorial for our dads, for our relatives, and for all the vets who gave us so much to be thankful for. We wanted to see it at least one more time before its all gone.

We live close by DC, so the trip is an easy one for us. We took the Metro in from Silver Spring and got off at the Smithsonian stop.

First of all, as I have said so many times, DC is becoming a veritable armed fortress. The feeling of being in a police state is nearly overwhelming. As we traversed the Mall between the Metro stop and the Wall, we had to pass the recently repaired and reopened Washington Monument. It was once such that one could sorta walk up to it and touch it. Now there's wire fencing and piles of dirt, and new 'visitor center' (read 'security check') appended to its base. It looks for all the world like Berlin's Checkpoint Charlie with a phallic symbol stuck on it. Guys in black 'combat' gear are everywhere. Amazingly, some of them were working for what we used to revere as the National Park Service. But alas, no more 'Smokey the Bear' suits for these guys. Now its black .... pants, shirts, combat boots, holsters .... even their badges and insignias were white lettering on black backgrounds.

Disgusting.

Immediately north of the Manument (intentionally misspelled) is the south lawn of the White House. The ubiquitous black Chevy Suburbans now favored by the American SS were in full view and everywhere. Clearly we can all take comfort in knowing that idiot son is being well protected. More chain link fence to obscure the citizens' view of the people's first residence.

We enjoyed our stroll down Constitution Avenue. Well, at least the weather was nice, although clouds were rolling in from the west and some rain was predicted for later in the afternoon. I was enjoying a choice 50 ring Arturo Fuentes Maduro.

But something seemed ..... I don't know .... slummy. Not the National Mall I remember from just a few years ago. I remember when new sod got laid, not just once a season, but seemingly after every event. Not now. Here's a shot of a path leading into the Mall, just before the Vietnam Memorial.



Look at how long the grass is. Look at the worn edges. Folks, in all the years I've lived here, I've never seen it look like that. Unkempt. I know we have a war to pay for and all, but geeeez .... can't they rent some goats? Maybe some of America's sheep can chew on it. Oh wait, I forgot. They're assigned to vote for idiot son.

So anyway, we mosey on and come to The Wall. It was very crowded and there was speechifyin' goin' on as we arrived. The walk to the face of The Wall was blocked off by some nice men in (more) black ninjagarb. While we were there, and I was puffin' the last of the Fuentes, they announced the last of the official speakers. Faterland Sekurity Direktor Reichsmarshal Chertoff addressed the throng.

I've been to The Wall more times than I wish to count. Each and every time I have, literally, been overwhelmed with sadness and have never been able to get away without weeping openly. But not this time. I experienced a new emotion.

Anger.

I was really fucking pissed that Chertoff ..... fucking CHERTOFF .... was speaking about the sacrifices these men and women made. CHERTOFF! What the FUCK is that about???????

Taps at the end, got to me, though. We were behind this impromptu display.



Of course, I was being the usual clown I am. I wore this 'healing' t-shirt. Some of you may remember them being available here on DU during the campaign.



It got more than few obvious stares. Only one scowl, however. Only one. I was pretty amazed. I expected more. It **did** get a few giggles, though, so that was a good thing. There was even one ninjaguy who smiled. Maybe they use coercion on these guys? I dunno.

As you know, the back of the shirt gives good ol' DU a plug, too.



Sparkly was far less 'in your face' than I was. She wore a subtle display of four stars pinned below her right shoulder to show her continuing support of another vet you might know.



On our way from The Wall to the WWII Memorial, we stopped at a tent set up among a bunch of vet organizations' tents. There were tents for a number of organizations I'd never heard of, mostly catering to combat, in-country vets. There were also an amazing number of 'Christian vet' organizations out there proselytizing and looking for money. My only conversation was with Vietnam Veterans of America, Inc., which I ask about here:

http://upload.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3753585

We then went over to the WWII Memorial. It is **very** different from The Wall. More stately. More ..... honoring, I suppose you could say. Surely more traditional. More what one would expect a war memorial to be. But also very stirring.



Sparkly's dad was in WWII, as was mine. We had a quite eerie experience. Left below the Nevada column was this wreath .... with Sparkly's dad's name on it!



At least it seemed to be his name. There was one letter missing in the last name, so we can't be sure. But I can say the goosebumps were very real. Now, he's not from Nevada, but nonetheless it pretty much jolted us.

I also took this picture to honor my dad, who went ashore first in Sicily and then at Salerno, after having been in North Africa.



As we left the WWII Memorial, we came across this man, walking silently and all alone, largely ignored by the crowd.



I went up to him and spoke. I assumed he was Vietnam era, just by guessing his age. In any case, I said 'They always forget vets when they return, don't they? Where's the VA? Where's the government? God Bless You, brother." He smiled and shook my hand.

By this time, the sky was getting pretty threatening, so we started back to the Metro.

All the time, I couldn't help but think that maybe my kids or grandkids would one day use Memorial Day to visit a new memorial .... one to the great country that once was.

The United States of America Memorial ........ may we NEVER see that day.