Erik's trip to Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Washington, DC, and Baltimore June and July, 2014
Day 18
Erik, Martha, and Arthur, along with Uncle Ben, Tia Mia, and Aron, went for a day of Washington Memorials. The first one we went to was the memorial for World War II and the many who lost their lives in that conflict.
The shape of the memorial is a big pool and fountain, circled by plinths representing the lives lost in that conflict by each state and territory.
Aron and Arthur
Erik stands at the plinth for those from Texas that died
the names of those who died are inscribed on the wall
there is also a statue
dedicated to the women
who served in Vietnam
Lincoln's Gettysburg Address
Erik and Abraham Lincoln
this view looks from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial across the Reflecting Pool (where Great-grandmother Louise Franklin Ramírez Steinbach floated Japanese lanterns every August 6 in memory of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki) and from there to the Washington Monument
Grandpa Arthur and Erik at the Korean Conflict Memorial
Grandpa Arthur and Aron at the Korean Conflict Memorial
The design of the Martin Luther King Memorial is based on a line from Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech: "out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope." The design's central component is a boulder sliced into three pieces. The two sides represent the proverbial mountain of despair, and the form of Dr. King emerges from a stone of hope that has moved ahead and apart from the other pieces
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly." — Alabama, 1963
"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. " — 1963
"I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality, and freedom for their spirits." — Norway, 1964
“Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies." — New York, 1967
"I oppose the war in Vietnam because I love America. I speak out against it not in anger but with anxiety and sorrow in my heart, and above all with a passionate desire to see our beloved country stand as a moral example of the world. — California, 1967
"We are determined here in Montgomery to work and fight until justice runs “down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream.” — Alabama 1955
"I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant." — Norway 1964
"We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." — District of Columbia, 1968
"Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that." — 1963
Erik, Aron, Martha, Mia, Ben, and Arthur
Tia Mia at the FDR Memorial with the quote, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
the Washington Monument seen across the Tidal Basin
statue of the long soup lines that developed in
the Great Depression
the plaques on this wall represent some of the many projects that were part of FDR's New Deal
Winston Churchill of England, Franklin Delano Roosevelt of the United States, and Josef Stalin of the USSR at the Yalta Conference in 1945
"I propose to create a civilian conservation corps to be used in simple work… more important, however, than the material gains will be the moral and spiritual value of such work."
FDR, his dog Fala, and one of his nieces
"I have seen war. I have seen war on land and sea. I have seen blood running from the wounded… I have seen the dead in the mud. I have seen cities destroyed… I have seen children starving. I have seen the agony of mothers and wives. I hate war."
Statue of FDR and his dog, Fala, with the quote: "They (who) seek to establish systems of government based on the regimentation of all human beings by a handful of individual rulers… call this a new order. It is not new and it is not order."
A statue to Eleanor Roosevelt
Tia Mia and Uncle Ben smooching
Erik, Grandpa Arthur, and Tia Mia
the Jefferson Memorial across the Tidal Basin
shrine presented by the
mayor of Yokoshima, Japan
Thomas Jefferson
Aron and Tia Mia and the
Washington Monument
from the preamble to the Declaration of Independence
“God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just. That His justice cannot sleep forever. Commerce between master and slave is despotism. Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate than that these people are to be free. Establish the law for edcating the common people. This it is the business of the state to effect and on a general plan.” This is not really a quote, but a mishmash of many quotes, taking them out of concept. Most of them were arguing against slavery.
“Almighty God hath created the mind free. All attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burthens,,. are a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion… No man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship or ministry or shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief, but all men shall be free to profess and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion. I know but one code of morality for men whether acting singly or collectively." rephrased from a state of Virginia bill for establishing religious freedom enacted in 1785
“I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions. But laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.”
Erik and Uncle Ben
