Invisible Children

Here is the point in my blog where I’ll make a plug for my favorite non-profit, Invisible Children. Since 2005, Invisible Children has been working towards ending the war in northern Uganda. The Lord’s Resistance Army, and their rebel leader, Joseph Kony, have been wreaking havoc all over the north and the conflict has now spread to the Congo where continues to kill, rape, and abduct individuals for his own devices. I had the opportunity to go to a two-day event in D.C. called “How It Ends” at which we learned the most recent information about the conflict from experts such as John Prendergast, the co-founder of ENOUGH Project, Michael Poffenberger, the founder of Resolve Uganda, the defense deputy of Uganda, and many others. We were also inspired by speakers such as the three founders of Invisible Children, Jason Russell, Bobby Bailey and Laren Poole, as well as various celebrities and public officials including Tom Shadyac, director of Ace Ventura, Bruce Almighty and other films, Melissa Fitzgerald, an actress from the West Wing, and (by far the highlight for me) Louis Moreno-Ocampo, the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. There were so many other speakers, but I want to save the blog team at TWC from having to hyperlink any more names.

Me and Luis Moreno-Ocampo, Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court

Following a day of conference, all 1700 participants marched up to the hill on Tuesday, June 23 and participated in over 400 meetings with various senators and representatives on the Hill, asking them to co-sponsor legislation already introduced in both chambers called the “L.R.A. Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act”. We started with less than 20 co-sponsors on both sides and currently have 99 co-sponsors in the House and 23 co-sponsors in the Senate….which is an accomplishment worth celebrating! We’re still calling offices and banging on doors for more co-sponsorship, but we’ve made progress that has never been made before in getting the U.S. government to take aggressive action to support the government of Uganda and help bring LRA leaders to justice in the International Criminal Court.

Our How It Ends packets as we were sitting in the Russell Senate Office Building

It was in the name of cycling...

Alright, I have a confession to make. I missed the fireworks on the 4th of July. Yes, I am in the nation’s capital, one of the best places to be on the 4th, and I didn’t see a single fireworks display. But you must also understand that I am a huge cycling fan, and the Tour de France began on the 4th. I chose to watch the prologue time trial stage in Monaco instead of seeing fireworks (or Barry Manilow for that matter). However, I made up for it by going to Alexandria’s 260th Birthday Party at Oronoco Park near the Waterfront area in Old Town.

Earlier in the day, I was able to go to the National Museum of American History, the highlight being the pop culture section where the Museum had the infamous Stephen Colbert painting of a Stephen Colbert painting of Stephen Colbert standing next to his fireplace above which hangs a painting of himself, as well as Dorothy’s ruby shoes from “The Wizard of Oz”, Apollo Anton Ohno’s speed skates he wore when he won the Olympic gold medal at the Salt Lake City Olympics in 2002, Kermit the Frog, and most importantly, the puffy shirt worn by Jerry Seinfeld in the second episode of season five, titled “The Puffy Shirt”. The Museum also had a great section on Presidents, my favorite being about Presidents in the movies as they showed an episode of The West Wing in the short film about it.

I went back to Alexandria in the early evening just in time to sing “Happy Birthday” to Alexandria and to see the Mayor pass out cake to people. I wish my mayor gave out birthday cake. The Alexandria Symphony Orchestra was also there, and gave a great performance until they cut the “1812 Overture” in half at the end. As a percussionist and pianist who played in the Virginia Youth Symphony Orchestra for six years, I was appalled that an orchestra as good as the ASO would cut the 1812 in half. That’s taking the easy way out. But the Marine cannon battalion present were fantastic and set off the cannons right in time with Tchaikovsky’s masterpiece.

Oscar the Grouch and the Puffy Shirt

NOTE TO ALL ORCHESTRAS: DON’T TAKE THE EASY WAY OUT. SOMEONE WILL ALWAYS KNOW YOU DIDN’T PLAY THE ENTIRE 1812.

It was really cool to see the entire City out celebrating and a bunch of kids had bought light sabers from the street vendors and were having an epic light saber battle in the middle of the field. If it hadn’t looked weird, I totally would have challenged some 12-year old to a light saber duel. I highly recommend the Alexandria birthday party, almost over the national 4th of July celebration, as it is less crowded and there is more of a community feeling to it, as opposed to being hot and crowded on the Mall for hours waiting for the real festivities to being.

The Alexandria Symphony Orchestra (NOT playing the entire 1812 Overture) and the fireworks display behind them

Get a front row seat at the 4th of July parade...

The 4th of July celebration in D.C. is one of the biggest events the city puts on every year. It attracts people from all over the country and world, with a parade down Constitution Avenue being one of the biggest attractions besides “A Capitol 4th” and the fireworks show that follows the show. Although, before we proceed, I must say that the parade is not my favorite part of the 4th on the Mall, but rather hearing the recitation of the Declaration of Independence at the National Archives is the highlight of the day for me.

Being a huge history nerd, I get really excited when three people acting as Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Ben Franklin (the author and contributors of the Declaration) stand up and read the list of grievances we have against King George III. It’s like having Festivus in July - that’s for you Seinfeld kids out there. Wouldn’t that be great if one the Founding Fathers went to the Court of St. James on the eve of Revolution and stood up in the style of Frank Costanza and said, “I got a lot of problems with you people! And now, you’re going to hear about it.” But anyway, as TJ, John and Ben everyone boos the heinous actions of the King and how he has “obstructed the Administration of Justice … made Judges dependent on his Will alone …” and “for quartering large bodies of troops among us … for cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world”, and most of all “for imposing Taxes on us without our Consent …” We certainly didn’t vote for that. Make note: The actor who plays John Adams, in giving accurate representation of our 2nd President, is the most spirited of the three speakers, which is why everyone booed him the loudest. He made us REALLY angry with King George. Then at the end of the reading of the Declaration, everyone is supposed to yell “Huzzah!”, a word which I believe we should use more often. I don’t think everyone was as excited to say Huzzah as I was though, as I felt like the only one who was yelling it. Get excited about your history people!

The parade immediately follows the reading of the Declaration, and one of the other interns in my office, Heidi, and I carried “feather flags”, which are the largest and most difficult pieces in the parade to handle. They are these 20 feet tall flags that you carry down Constitution Avenue for 11 blocks, making you feel like you’re in an eternal wind tunnel. But it was really fun to be in the parade, and we got to see most of the floats pass by us as we waited to be waved into the parade. We were able to be in the parade through The Washington Center, and I really recommend taking advantage of it, despite the fact that carrying the flag was really difficult. It was really neat to be part of the National Parade, and seeing the reading of the Declaration, as well as seeing the Founding Father’s and Abraham Lincoln arrive at the parade grounds in a golf cart made the parade that much better.

Photo of Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin reading the Declaration, taken by Tom McQueeny.

Best museum in DC … ever.

I’ve been to a lot of the museums in DC, as my grandparents used to live in NOVA (Northern Virginia for those who don’t know) when I was young. I’ve been to the Air and Space Museum way too many times and with the exception of July 16, the 40th anniversary of when we landed on the moon, I have absolutely no intention of setting foot in it and many other Smithsonian museums for the duration of my stay here in DC. Therefore, I’m always on the lookout for places I haven’t been to, more off the map kind of places.

And while the Newseum isn’t off the map, it’s not a Smithsonian, which qualifies it as being more off the map. Plus, it used to be in Rosslyn and only recently moved to its new home on Pennsylvania Avenue with one of the most unobstructed views of the Capitol in the District.

The Newseum has some incredible artifacts in it. It has an original Gutenberg Bible, the door the Watergate criminals taped over to get into the building, headlines from the world’s most important events from various newspapers, a bullet-hole ridden truck that once carried journalists during the wars in the Balkans in the early 90s, and the telecommunications antenna that was once at the top of the north tower of the World Trade Center. All in all, it’s an incredible museum, especially for a history buff like myself.

Something else really cool about the Newseum is that they always have really cool speakers in the museum. Whether in the studio for NPR that is housed in the Newseum, or giving a speech in the basement, the museum has gotten some really great speakers (George Clooney once gave an NPR interview there).

I had the opportunity to meet Richard Wolffe, NBC contributor, who was signing copies of his new book, “Renegade” which is a compilation of his various interviews with the Barack Obama the candidate and Barack Obama the President. I told him I was a summer intern and he seemed very excited about that, saying that it’s a great place to be in the summer and that I could learn a lot. All in all, a really nice guy.

Also something to note: the PRIDE Festival was happening below the Newseum, and I went with a group of Middle Eastern political cartoonists (by the way, did I mention that I get to go to stuff with visitors because of my job? It's awesome). It was interesting to tell their interpreter what was going on and then to subsequently get their reaction.

Arlington: The Rap

So, this guy who calls himself “GoRemy” just released this video over the weekend called “Arlington: The Rap” about how tough it is to live in Arlington. Between all the Pottery Barns, Macy’s stores, Gold’s Gyms, Whole Foods’, and Starbucks stores … it’s a tough town.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T1RMuoQnKo

Note: I wear brown flip flops too. They’re called Rainbows, and they’re wonderful.

The Nats won?

It’s true baseball fans, the Washington Nationals, “the worst baseball team in the American League” according to my friend Bryan, beat the New York Mets 7-1 last night. I went to the game with Bryan, an Elon alum, with other members of the Elon College/University alumni association.

The center field entrance to Nats Stadium

Nats games are really fun, but it’s the first baseball game I’ve ever been to where I’ve seen several people walking around the ballpark in business suits, definitely an uncommon site at any other ballpark. Nationals Stadium is truly a magnificent stadium, that sits next to the Navy Yard on the Anacostia River.

The enormous center field scoreboard. It even posts the batting lineup.

Although its nosebleed section, where we sat, is incredibly high, and when Bryan said, “Are we in heaven, yet?” as we walked up the eternal ramp to the 300 and 400 sections, I immediately shot back, “Is that Lynyrd Skynrd I hear?” But it was definitely a great game, and the Nats was one inning away from making it a complete shutout.

Welcome to D.C. baseball!

The highlight of the game though, was definitely the “Designated Driver of the Game”. Some poor soul named Elliott Jaffa had his name lit up on the scoreboard. Hopefully he gets free tickets to Busch Gardens Williamsburg, a sponsor of the “DD of the Game". Otherwise Elliott may never live be able to shed his new title.

Poor Elliott Jaffa

Something interesting to note about Nats games is that you don’t have to park at the Navy Yard for the game. You can either take the Metro to the Navy Yard station, or, as the Elon Alumni Association did, you can park at RFK Stadium, the old Redskins/Nats stadium, now the home of D.C. United soccer, and there are free buses that take you straight to the ballpark, a pretty nice deal, considering parking is free at RFK.

But anyway, Bryan and I had fun, and I look forward to more activities in the District.

Also: just a tidbit. I went to the same high school as the Nats's third baseman, Ryan Zimmerman.

Running for Good

On Wednesday of this past week, my mom sent me some information about the Susan G. Komen Global Race for the Cure that was being held on the Mall this past Saturday. As someone who has a love-hate relationship with running and working out, I was hesitant to sign up, as I haven’t really run in a little while. But on Thursday, I learned one of my co-workers at IIE, Emily, was also participating in it too. Seeing this as an opportunity to get to know one of my co-workers outside the office, I took used my lunch time on Friday and went down to the Department of Commerce to register.

While I did wake up at 7:15am for an 8:00am start time (yikes!), I still managed to make it on time, as the festivities pushed the start time back by half an hour. It was definitely a cool thing to see so many people from around the world gathered together to support the fight against breast cancer, as well as to be surrounded by so many women (and some men) who have survived breast cancer and come back to support others going through the disease.
Instead of running it, Emily, her friend Megan, and I walked it, which turned out to be the right choice as 60,000 people all walking down Constitution Avenue makes for a pretty congested race. But it was definitely a great experience, and a great way to get involved in the D.C. community.

Following the race, Megan, Emily and I went to Teaism, a restaurant that is famous for its teas, although it should also be famous for its incredibly delicious French Toast. Warning: don’t get the double. I ordered only the single and could only finish half of it. It’s definitely nice to begin forging friendships with people from work and others.