Aaron and Anne-Sophie

Our mothers are in town for Anne-Sophie’s graduation from George Washington, so we’ve been showing them around DC. We also took a trip to Williamsburg on Mother’s Day to join the 400th anniversary festival of Jamestown, which was the first English settlement in the Americas in 1607. Many consider it the birthplace of the US and visitors such as President George Bush Jr. and Queen Elizabeth paid a visit as well. The celebration also was sure to mention the clash of cultures that took place here between Europeans, Native Americans, and African slaves. Williamsburg, Jamestown, and Yorktown (the historic triangle) have developed a tourist industry based on living museums, with recreations of life during those historically significant moments in time. We also visited a plantation, which hosted many famous American leaders such as Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Henry, and Robert E. Lee. Virginia is rich in American history, being at the center of the Civil War and raising up many of the leaders of the American Revolution. It was really our first trip to the “South,” which to us can be as culturally different as a foreign country. So it was interesting. We uploaded some of the photos. We’ll be heading off to California and Hawaii soon, so look for more photos from that trip.

When I first advocated on Capitol Hill in 2003 I recall likening it to Mt. Doom in Mordor in “The Lord of the Rings,” because I had the feeling that people were drawn here by the “ring to rule them all” and that I had to go to the source of where that ring of power was made to overcome all the evil in the world. After my fourth time lobbying on the Hill (this time with Churches for Middle East Peace), I must say that there is still a sycophantic element to it. (more…)