I really enjoyed our time as a military family living within 25 miles of Washington D.C. We lived in Woodbridge, Virginia from 1993 to 1995 and we spent a lot of time exploring. It is an area rich in history from colonial settlements at Jamestown and Williamsburg to Civil War battlefields and of course, the marvelous museums and monuments of Washington D.C.
Our family spent many, many, weekends exploring the National Mall—climbing to the top of the Washington Monument; basking in the sunshine and cherry blossoms by the Jefferson Memorial; gazing in awe at the massive, kindly face of Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial; and watching the White House for a glimpse of the president.
We tried to visit all of the Smithsonian museums—we made it to the Air and Space Museum, the Museum of Natural History, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Arts and Industries Building, the National Zoo and the Smithsonian Institution Building—“the Castle.” The Postal Museum opened shortly before we moved back to Minnesota and we were able to make it there just days before moving. It is delightful, with its extensive history of the Pony Express and mail carrier conveyances and stamp collections.
We didn’t get to see the American Indian Museum. It was under construction when we were there. I was sorry that I didn’t get there and I would love to make it back there for a visit.
And now, thanks to my attendance at the Minnesota Newspaper Association Convention, there is yet another museum that I want to return to visit in Washington D.C.—the Newseum—a 250,000-squarefoot museum all about the news. The museum has seven levels, filled with galleries, theaters and interactive visitor services. The purpose of the Newseum is to take museum goers behind the scenes to experience how and why news is made.
Charles Overby, director of the Newseum, was a luncheon speaker at the convention. He spoke passionately about the museum and about the First Amendment. Overby encouraged all of us at the convention to remember the importance of the First Amendment. He said the curators of the Newseum feel so strongly about the First Amendment that they engraved its content on the wall of the building—74-feet high, in marble.
Overby said the First Amendment might not be the most important amendment. “But,” he added, “it is the one that makes all the others possible.”
It was a good reminder for the roomful of news people. It is something to remember as journalists, when we run into difficulties obtaining information. It would be easier to shrug and say we tried and leave it at that. But that is not what our job requires us to do. That is not what the founding fathers had in mind when they wrote the First Amendment. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
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