there was one view that always struck me as being so…wrong. And it doesn’t matter how many times I’ve seen it in the past nine years. It’s still wrong.
Take the Orange Line train from New Carrollton Station (US50 and the Beltway on the Maryland side) into downtown. Cross into the northeast quadrant of the District of Columbia at Deanwood. Look left and right at the slums. Look forward at the slums. Everything brown, black, grey, dirty, seedy, falling down, desperately poor.
Now look farther forward. What are those gleaming white buildings in the distance?
Why, the Capitol and the Washington Monument and the rest of the Federal areas around the National Mall.
Our city on a Hill, surrounded by poverty.
It’s enough to make one sick. Or to make one ponder the reasons why we allow such suffering to continue in the shadow of our national government.
I was reminded of this view (which I’ll be seeing again on Monday) when I read Carrie Lucas’s article on why school choice is needed in DC.
Don’t we care enough about people who live in the capital of our beloved nation to tell the teachers’ unions that they’ve had their chance, and their day is over?
A "surly curmudgeon[], suspicious and lacking in altruism." (Robert A. Heinlein)