Revisiting the Jefferson Memorial
If you’ve been down to the Tidal Basin to see the Cherry Blossoms, then you’ve probably already revisited the Jefferson Memorial.
When we went down there the other day, we found the Memorial abuzz with a mix of tourists, regular locals, and locals who were hosting tourists. The weather was wet and gray, and the kids in a school group were shifting around to relieve their sore feet. Parents were flush, grandparents rested on the benches, if they could find a spot.
But even with the mass of restless flesh packed within the Memorial’s dome, most of the visitors’ were pleased and impressed.
Considering the atmosphere in which the Memorial was dedicated, we thought this was a fitting milieu. Finished in 1943, so in the middle of WWII that a plaster replacement of Rudolph Evan’s bronze Jefferson statue was installed to honor the war-time restriction on metals, the $3 million Memorial did not get a huge party for a dedication.
Photo by Cowtools.
The ceremony lasted just fifteen minutes and was attended by a mere 5,000 people (nothing compared to the hundreds of thousands at the Christopher Columbus Memorial Fountain). FDR, who laid the Memorial's cornerstone and was instrumental in its construction, spoke of Jefferson’s hatred of tyranny in relation to the WWII battle of democracy against fascism and dictatorship. “No king, no tyrant, no dictator can govern for them as wisely as they can govern for themselves,” he said.
Back to the present. We spoke to a security guard at the Memorial about the inundation of visitors. Do they ever annoy him?
“No!” he said, smiling. “They come from all over the world—they want to know about America, it’s a good thing.”
Then he pointed up at the quote from the Declaration of Independence that begins with “all men are created equal.”
“We are all really the same,” he said. “It’s like Jefferson said.”
And when we spoke to visitors there, they too spoke with reverence for Jefferson’s words. Standing on the cusp of the Memorial, where FDR had asked for a clear sight line to the White House, a student from George Mason said, “I just wish the Presidents these days would come and read this.”
Surrounded by hundreds of diverse people from all over the world, looking out at what a beautiful piece of landscaping the Tidal Basin could be, we felt momentarily protected by the man who swore “upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man,” and it was easy to forget about the drizzle.