The future was now at the 1962 Seattle World's Fair

Michael McGinn, the mayor of Seattle, was interviewed on NPR's "Science Friday" today. He rides his bike to work and wants to make his city the greenest in the nation. During his remarks, he mentioned that the city was celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Seattle World's Fair and was looking ahead to city's next fifty years, which includes significant threats from climate change. 

I was a bit shocked to realize that the world's fair, subtitled the "Century 21 Exposition," was 50 years ago. In the summer of 1962 (that's actually 51 years ago, but Seattle likes long parties), my father and mother bundled their six kids into a Ford Falcon station wagon and drove us from Moses Lake in eastern Washington to Seattle. We were taking the long way to a new home in Wichita, Kansas. Dad was a builder of ICBM missile silos and apparently Washington was full up with missiles so we were now moving on to the wheat fields of southeastern Kansas. We needed more nukes lest a missile gap develop with the Soviets which would threaten our American way of life, our precious bodily fluids, and so on.

In Seattle, we rented an apartment a few miles away from the fair. If I had only forecast how hip Seattle was going to become, I would have stayed right there. Alas, we were only in residence for a few days, long enough to go up in the Space Needle, ride the monorail and eat some Swedish food that made me sick.

I'm not sure what possessed me to eat Swedish food when there was all sorts of good American grub around every corner. My parents may have wanted to give me a taste of a foreign country, expand my horizons. That way, when I turned 18, I would feel the urge to flee my homestead for foreign lands, thus opening up another place at the dinner table for the three additional siblings that soon would join us.

I got sick. It wasn't food poisoning, I don't think. It just didn't agree with me. I had recovered sufficiently the next day to eat a burger and fries at the American pavilion which was located a long way from where the Swedes were hatching plots against Americans.

It was a fun trip. We left Seattle via a ferry that took us by the Bremerton Navy Yards where we viewed hundreds of mothballed World War II ships. We cruised the Olympic Peninsula and ended up at a beach where I got my first glimpse of an ocean. As we ran barefoot into the cold Pacific, little did I know that in a few years I would be living by another (much warmer) beach, this one in Central Florida, while my father worked for NASA to get some guys on the moon.

I visited Seattle in 1972, ten years after I was almost poisoned at the world's fair. I was 21, hitchhiking cross country with Sharon, my 21-year-old girlfriend from Massachusetts. We were both college dropouts, footloose and fancy free. The Selective Service System lads had sent me a nice note earlier that year. Three years as draft bait was long enough and they were moving on to younger targets.

We stayed in a hostel near the university. We went to the world's fair site, rode the monorail and went up in the Space Needle. No Swedish food for me this time, thank you. I probably couldn't have found it if I wanted it. Seattle was still working on becoming a hipster enclave. Now it's probably lousy with Swedish food and Turkish food and Peruvian food and all the rest, although the portions are probably smaller.

I send my best wishes to Seattle. Global warming and rising sea levels are not going to be kind to this storm-tossed outpost on the Pacific Rim. Your air may also be fouled by coal dust from the myriad coal trains Wyoming soon plans to send to the West Coast. The coal is destined to shipping to China which will burn it, adding to the CO2 levels which in turn will fuel global warming which will send waves crashing into the base of the Space Needle. I live in Wyoming, by the way. But don't blame me. I'm on your side, Seattle. In case you have to flee the raging seas, there's plenty of room out here in the Wide Open Spaces under The Big Sky. Just be sure to bring along your blue politics (we few Wyoming Dems crave company) and some of those funky food trucks --Big Boys Filipino Food Truck, Kaosamai Thai Cook Truck or Tuk Tuk Mobile Feast. And don't forget the seafood, although the salmon may be swimming a lot closer to Cheyenne in fifty years.

Surf's up!

Seeing new West Coast coal terminals as a red-state, blue-state issue

On Wyofile, San Juan Islands' resident Charlie West offers a tongue-in-cheek modest proposal: You send us your coal, we'll send you our trash.

West notes that the wide open spaces of Wyoming and Montana have plenty of big holes for the trash of the 48 million residents of Washington, Oregon and California. It's only a fair trade, right? You send us your dirty coal and we send you our dirty trash.

A batch of inland Republicans, including our very own Cynthia Lummis, is trying to browbeat Washington's coastal residents in permitting a new coal shipping facility. West reports a lively conversation at the local tavern which goes something like this:

“We’re selling taxpayer-owned coal for next to nothing, so it can be sent somewhere else, to run someone else’s factories, and employ someone else’s people while we don’t have enough jobs in this country?”

“It makes no sense, pollute the air with trains and ships to get the coal there, then they burn it and their pollution drifts back here!”

We all pay for dirty coal. Global warming is real, no matter what the Know Nothings say in my Deep Red State of Wyoming. And while Wyoming rakes in taxes from its oil and gas and coal, including almost a billion federal dollars from energy resources extracted on public land (see previous post), coastal residents pay the price with rising sea levels and whopper storms.

Forward-thinking blue states such as WA, OR and CA invest heavily in alternative energy while WY continues burning and shipping coal. The coal is shipped to China and India where it is burned, creating more CO2 in the atmosphere -- this speeds global warming. The ice sheets melt, forcing a rise in ocean levels which swamps blue-state cities, drowning Liberal, latte-drinking, mountain-bike-riding voters by the millions. Wyoming builds a big wall at its borders to keep out the riff raff. We keep mining and burning and shipping coal, secure in the knowledge that sea levels have to get pretty darn high before bitchin' waves begin to break on the beaches of Cheyenne. Besides, the wall will keep the water out. We'll call them dikes. And we can open our own ports to ship our own coal to China and India, those parts that aren't at the bottom of Davy Jones Locker.

The future's so bright, I gotta wear shades. I better wear shades, what with the dissolving ozone layer and blinding sun and all.

Biased statements (and proposed legislation) don't just scare away gay people -- they scare away everyone

Some Republican Legislators talk up economic development but also sponsor and support anti-gay legislation. They may want to rethink that strategy.

Interesting article by Melissa Maynard in stateline.org about the crucial role that businesses play when it comes to the gay marriage debate.

Washington state recently passed a gay marriage bill that had support of the governor, key Republican legislators and high-profile businesses such as Microsoft, Boeing and Nike. Bill sponsor Sen. Ed Murray, a Democrats, said this is "how we got moderate Republicans and conservative Democrats to vote for this."

LGBT activists have been successfully lining up business support for years. It's paid off in Washington, Maryland and New York. There's now a looming battle over the issue in North Carolina. On May 8, voters will decide whether to further codify the state's gay marriage ban by putting it in the state constitution.

These are all big states with a strong corporate presence. These businesses want to attract the young workforce and "fear being left behind in places seen as backward by gay workers and other young employees who feel strongly about the issue."

While Wyoming is not exactly a hipster destination (with the possible exception of Jackson), it runs a risk that its biased attitudes may hinder attempts to land new businesses. None of us lives in a vacuum. Outrageous statements travel like wildfire in our social media age.

Stephen Dull V.P. with North Carolina-based VF Corp. (a Fortune 500 company) put it this way: "If you're sending a signal to the world that you're biased, it just doesn't scare away gay people. It scares away everyone."

Why have the police resorted to violence against Occupy Wall Street protesters?

Following last month's police brutality in Oakland, and today's summary eviction of the Occupy Wall Street camp (and don't forget Seattle and Denver -- see above photo from Oct. 29 by Craig F. Walker of The Denver Post), American activists are reaching the conclusion that "police protect the 1%". More at Police Violence Reveals a Corrupt System (The Guardian via Common Dreams).

Seattle activist Dorli Rainey, 84, reacts after being hit with pepper spray during an Occupy Seattle protest on Tuesday, November 15, at Westlake Park. Protesters gathered in the intersection of 5th Avenue and Pine Street after marching from their camp at Seattle Central Community College in support of Occupy Wall Street. Many refused to move from the intersection after being ordered by police. Police then began spraying pepper spray into the gathered crowd hitting dozens of people. A pregnant woman was taken from the melee in an ambulance after being struck with spray. Photo: JOSHUA TRUJILLO / SEATTLEPI.COM

Sitting on the dock of the Potomac, life seems pretty good

I've been in D.C. less than 24 hours and I've seen more sunburned tourist skin than dark suits.

Congress is on vacation, you see. They are back on their home turf staging town meetings. Guys like Tea Party Slim are mad as hell at Congress for agreeing to raise the debt ceiling. They are going to raise Cain at town meetings. Meanwhile, guys like me will be haranguing Congressional reps for being such babies before agreeing to raise the debt ceiling.

These town hall meetings are sure to sparkle with wit and charm.

Watching CNN yesterday in the Dallas-Fort Worth airport, I noticed that the Dow fell 512 points, give or take. That's a big chunk, 512 points. Add that to the losses suffered the day before, the DJIA erased a year's gains in the blink of an eye. The wink of John Boehner's eye.

But in Dupont Circle, the citizenry still spends money. As I sat in a window seat at Kramerbooks Afterwords Cafe and Grill, I watched an unending stream of humanity quaff beer and munch on soft shell crab sandwiches. It's Friday night! Everyone be of good cheer!

A group of Boy Scouts trooped by the Kramerbooks' window. The kids looked pretty healthy. They seemed to be having a good time. In the store, people bought books. Young people partied in the bars and in the streets. They didn't appear overly worried about the fate of our nation.

Sometimes, looks can be deceiving.

UPDATE: While I was writing this, I hadn't yet seen the news that Standard & Poor's had reduced the U.S. credit rating for the first time in history. Its main reason was the recent debt ceiling fight. Thanks Sen. Enzi and Sen. Dr. Barrasso. Next time I'm thinking of putting you two in charge of our country's credit rating, I'll think twice.

UPDATE: From the New York Times:

“The U.S. government has to come to terms with the painful fact that the good old days when it could just borrow its way out of messes of its own making are finally gone,” China’s official news agency, Xinhua, said in a harshly worded commentary.

Next time we need a loan, better call Don Corleone.

Ganesha, remover of obstacles, please remove Kootenai Constitution Party from my sight

"Ganesha" by sculptor Rick Davis. Kathy Plonka photo. The Spokesman-Review. 

Today’s Wyoming Tribune-Eagle’s religion section features an article about a protest in Coeur d’Alene about a new public art display. I am always interested in protests against art displays because I work in the arts and it’s always intriguing to see what kind of art upsets which kind of people.

On Friday afternoon in Coeur d’Alene, the Kootenai County Constitution Party staged a protest at a statue entitled “Ganesha.” The statue, by Spokane metal artist Rick Davis, is one of 15 dedicated Friday as part of the city’s new “ArtCurrents” public art program

Artists own the sculptures, which remain in place for a year and are offered for sale. The city receives 25 percent of the proceeds of any sales. The sculptures are by artists in Idaho, Wyoming, Washington, Montana and Nebraska. Proposals were solicited from artists, and a citizens committee selected about half of the submissions. The artists received $500 stipends.

The program is based on one that has been in place in Sheridan, Wyo., for eight years. The Sheridan program has been wildly successful, with a variety of sculptures on downtown street corners. They bring ambience to an already lively downtown. The project adds money to the city coffers. The art also draws people downtown and they stay longer to see the artwork.

Davis’s Coeur d’Alene statue is of Hinduism’s Lord Ganesha, an elephant-headed, human-bodied “god of wisdom and remover of obstacles and that is often invoked before the beginning of any major undertaking,” according to a June 11 ANI article.

Any project that involves both government and the arts should welcome a god who is a remover of obstacles. Rajan Zed, president of Universal Society of Hinduism, was quoted in the ANI article: “What could be more auspicious for Coeur d'Alene than having a Ganesha statue in its downtown?”

Instead, the county’s Constitution Party sees it as an “abomination.”

The best coverage of this has been in the Irregular Times blog where jclifford asks this question:

Now, guess which statue from the 2011-2012 ArtCurrents Coeur D’Alene Public Art installation the group claims is unconstitutional. 

It’s not the statue of Rachel, a character from the Old Testament. 

It’s not the statue of St. Francis of Assisi, a figure of Christian devotion. 

No, the only religious statue that the Kootenai County Constitution Party rejects is the statue of Ganesha, a hindu deity. Isn’t that curious?

I join jclifford in finding it ironic that Rick Davis sculpted Ganesha and the statue of St. Francis of Assisi, one of the Catholicism’s major saints. The Prayer of St. Francis was one of the first I learned. My father, a major Catholic parent, coached my brother and me for hours and hours, drilling the prayer into our dense little heads. I am now writing this from memory:

Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace

Where there is doubt, let me sow faith

Where there is darkness, light

Where there is sadness, joy

Ours is not to be consoled as to console

Something, something.

Amen.

That’s all I recall. My memory is a sieve.

I could jog my brain cells if I was in downtown Coeur d’Alene, looking at the St. Francis statue. At the same time, if Constitution Party knuckleheads were on the scene, I might also pray to Ganesha to remove annoying human-like obstacles to my enjoyment of beautiful public art.

Here is the prayer in its current permutation (from http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/pray0027.htm):

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love.

Where there is injury, pardon.

Where there is doubt, faith.

Where there is despair, hope.

Where there is darkness, light.

Where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,

grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;

to be understood, as to understand;

to be loved, as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive.

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

Amen.

Coming soon -- Wyoming coal-powered iPods

Did you know this:

Burlington Northern Santa Fe railway estimates that 500 pounds of coal are blown from each rail car for every 500 miles traveled?

Just one of the interesting facts in a Grist post and in a Sierra Magazine story about plans to ship Wyoming coal to China. The key element for the plan is to upgrade the Columbia River port in Longview, Wash. Environmentalists and the state government are resisting. May not be too much longer before money talks and the impasse is broken.

I'm reminded of that John Prine song, "Paradise:"

And daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County
Down by the Green River where Paradise lay
Well I'm sorry my son but you're too late in asking
Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away

With a few changes of place names (apologies to Mr. Prine), here are the lyrics:

And daddy won't you take me back to Campbell County
Down by the Powder River where Paradise lay
Well I'm sorry my son but you're too late in asking
Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away 

To make iPods in China.

Campbell County isn't exactly paradise. And the Powder River was appropriately named. Many who live and work and ranch and write and sculpt there like it well enough. I have friends and colleagues in Gillette who think I live in the ugly part of the state.

Mixed feelings here about coal. The more Wyoming coal sold, the more royalties the state collects. The state coffer expands and my job is secure. It may be too much to hope for a raise, as the Wyoming Legislature is notoriously tight-fisted and, with its new Tea Party members, not in the mood for a spending spree.

All this to make iPods for the children of America? My children included?

There's the rub. China makes stuff we want and -- possibly -- need. We ship them coal thousands of miles and they ship us back iPods. I look around my study and see PCs and a digital camera and my DSL modem and surge protector and phone and photo frames and who knows what else. The only thing in this room I can vouch for as totally "Made in the U.S.A." is me, aging rapidly, and my mutt Coco stretched out on the floor for her mid-morning nap. Coco has a microchip (probably made in China) embedded in her hide. If needed, we can find her electronically if she ever disappears.

The articles are worth reading. Access them through your Wyoming coal-powered PCs.

Old King Coal not such a merry old soul

Laramie River coal plant near Wheatland 

China burns half of the world's coal production every year. It pollutes its air and kills its people, making heart disease the nation's number one killer. China's fossil-fuel habit is one of the main culprits of global warming.

Wyoming and Montana companies dig thousands of tons of coal from the ground every day. Our power plants can't burn all that coal to send power to Colorado and Texas and Utah. Other U.S. plants can't burn that much coal. Many states, Texas included, are scrubbing plans for new coal-fired plants.

To fill China's endless coal appetite, and to contribute to the further spread of cardiopulmonary illnesses, our states want to export more coal to China. There's money to be made, too. Not only for the coal companies, but for severance taxes which pay the salaries of government workers such as myself.

But Washington state is getting in the way of progress.

The Cowboy State and The Treasure State want to ship their coal directly to Asia through a port in Cowlitz County, Washington (a.k.a. The Gateway to Mt. St. Helens). Officials in the county have approved an upgrade to its Columbia River port, but environmental groups say not so fast (from the Casper Star-Tribune). 

On Tuesday, the Washington Department of Ecology petitioned to intervene in the appeal filed by Earthjustice. Ecology spokeswoman Kim Schmanke said the agency wants a seat at the table because it may be asked to approve other permits for the project.

Gov. Brian Schweitzer plans to travel to Washington state next week to seek support for the project. He said he's going to tell state officials it's irrational for them to oppose a port to export Montana coal when utilities that serve Washington state burn Montana coal.Freudenthal said Thursday that he would not expect Schweitzer to accomplish anything but making the trip. 

Freudenthal doubts Washington state officials will receive advice from someone from another state any more than Wyoming officials do when they get similar visits from an outsider. 

The immediate problem, Freudenthal said, is how to get the port exporting Wyoming coal. The larger issue is the need to figure out carbon capture and sequestration in order to receive support from the "rational" environmental groups, he said.

Meanwhile, Gov.-elect Matt Mead is working on a letter of support to send with Schweitzer next week, Mead spokeswoman Susan Anderson said Thursday. Mead takes office Monday. 

Freudenthal said people need to realize that the coal industry is "at risk" whether they agree that climate change is real or not. "This is about coal production, market share and jobs," Freudenthal said.

We're going to see more of these conflicts as we attempt to switch from fossil fuels to alternative energy sources that don't melt the ice caps and lead to the flooding of port cities from Seattle to San Diego. Red states want to ship their coal to China but the coastal blue states won't let them. No alternative but to send it to Houston and then on to the Panama Canal and then on to China. But that route would add time and miles and make the whole enterprise less cost-effective. The states could send the coal to Vancouver, B.C., which shipped about 26 million tons of coal to China this year. But how would that look, red-state Wyoming shipping its coal from Socialist Canada?

Even George Will is getting into the act. In a column this week, he could barely contain his glee that millions of tons of global-warming-contributing coal could be shipped out of a port adjacent to the Green Capital of the U.S. and maybe the world -- Portland, Oregon.

Cowlitz County in Washington state is across the Columbia River from Portland, Ore., which promotes mass transit and urban density and is a green reproach to the rest of us. Recently, Cowlitz did something that might make Portland wonder whether shrinking its carbon footprint matters.

I wonder why conservatives take such delight in destroying the planet? The fundies are all convinced that the end is coming anyway so why fight it? Doesn't matter to them if it's flood or fire. But George Will isn't in this Know Nothing camp. He's smarter than that. While he will no longer be with us when Washington Post columnists commute by gondola, one wonders why he doesn't care for the future of his family or your family or my family.

George Will makes his living by being the conservative curmudgeon in the bow tie. He's also a language scold and a know-it-all baseball fan. That's his platform and to turn Green (or even hint at it) at this late date will cost him.

He provides several quotes from James Fallows' recent cover story about coal in The Atlantic. In "Dirty Coal, Clean Future," Fallows makes the case that we can only get out of this hydrocarbon dilemma by trusting in China's new technologies to burn coal cleaner. The only way out is through. I just read the synopsis, but it seems as if Fallows would give a green light to the shipping of coal from Washington state. And the more we can ship, the better.

I'll read the article and respond. Meanwhile, here's a few parting words from George Will:

If the future belongs to electric cars, those in China may run on energy stored beneath Wyoming and Montana. 

And so run the hopes of the Govs of Wyoming and Montana. 

Finally, a children's book about beer

Not enough books out there with beer as a subject.

But now there's "B is for Beer," subtitled "A Children's Book for Grown-ups" and "A Grown-up Book for Children."

Tom Robbins was one of my favorite writers back in the 1970s. "Another Roadside Attraction" (1971) featured a vagabond football player, mistaken identity, a Vatican hit squad, tourism and a possible Second Coming. The main character in "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues" is Sissy Hankshaw, born with a very large thumbs tailor-made for hitchhiking adventures. A movie was made by Gus Van Sant in 1993. I never saw it, but maybe I should put it on my list.

An adventurous English prof at World's Most Famous Beach Community College used "Another Roadside Attraction" in his class. I devoured the book. Kooky and well-written, it's hippie-era mysticism suited for the times. The only other English classes I'd taken to that point focused on the classics of American and Brit lit. This was a welcome change. However, I did go on as an English major to take many more lit classes, most featuring the classics, but made interesting by talented profs at Hogtown U in Florida and Aggieville in Colorado.

I read "Cowgirls" later on my own. I liked it less well that "Roadside," but it was fun and entertaining. I lost touch with Mr. Robbins after those first two books. He has others, I know, but methinks he was keeping to himself in the wilds of Washington state.

His new book demands attention. He'll be at the Tattered Cover in Denver's LoDo on Thursday, April 30, 7:30 p.m. This is one of those free ticketed events. The TC will give a ticket to the first 275 people who who buys a copy of "B is for Beer" ($17.95 Ecco Press). Since TC started giving out tickets last Tuesday, they probably are all gone. You can still hang out in the TC corridors and hear Mr. Robbins -- you just won't be able to hear him. To get a signed copy of the book, e-mail books@tatteredcover.com.

Here's a description of the author and his new book from the TC web site:

Maverick bestselling novelist Tom Robbins will discuss and sign his new book B is for Beer, a children's book about beer, but also a book for adults, from the author known for his ability to both seriously illuminate and comically entertain. Once upon a time (right about now) there was a planet (how about this one?) whose inhabitants consumed thirty-six billion gallons of beer each year (it's a fact, you can Google it). Among those affected, each in his or her own way, by all the bubbles, burps, and foam, was a smart, wide-eyed, adventurous kindergartner named Gracie; her distracted mommy; her insensitive dad; her non-conformist uncle; and a magical, butt-kicking intruder from a world within our world. Populated by the afore-mentioned characters -- and as charming as it may be subversive -- B Is for Beer involves readers, young and old, in a surprising, far-reaching investigation into the limits of reality, the transformative powers of children, and, of course, the ultimate meaning of a tall, cold brewski.

Sounds like a Tom Robbins book.

I look forward to imbibing it.

More on mental health parity legislation

Forty-eight states offer their own mental health parity laws, although they vary widely in the type of coverage offered. I hate to say this, but only two states do not have any type of laws on mental health parity. One is Alaska. I would advise Sarah Palin to do something about that when she returns to her regular job as governor on Nov. 5. Gov. Palin has made a big deal during the presidential campaign about her passion for special needs children, such as those with Down Syndrome, autism and birth defects. Her youngest daughter was born earlier this year with Down Syndrome. Since she won't be able to carry through with this on the national level, perhaps she can propose legislation in Alaska that can address the demands of all families with special needs children. And perhaps that effort can be adopted in Wyoming, the only other state other than Alaska without its own mental health parity law.

Wyoming is a place with 500,000 residents spread out over 99,000 square miles. We don't have enough hospitals and clinics and health care professionals to take care of the mental health needs of our residents. While the U.S. suicide rate is 11 in 100,000 and the rate in Rocky Mountain states averages 17 per 100,000, Wyoming's rate (when last measured) is the worst in the nation at 22 per 100,000 people. We have a governor who cares enough about this issue to address the Governor's Round Table on Children's Mental Health Nov. 5-6 in Cheyenne. The first lady will also speak. So will Rodger McDaniel, head of the state's Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services Division.

McDaniel sees his role as a champion for those families who've been faced with drug abuse and mental health issues. He's an old school social justice activist, a lawyer and ordained minister who practices what he preaches. He and his family left Cheyenne in the 1990s to build houses in Central America for Habitat for Humanity. When you call his office you get a real person on the phone who can answer your questions or get you right to someone who can. This is just a wild guess, but I would say that most people calling his office are desperate for answers, deep in the throes of a family crisis. I was, when I called about our daughter earlier this year. Where do you go to get the help you need? How do you pay for it when your insurance runs out? If you don't have insurance, how can you cover costs at a drug treatment facility or mental health center that can cost hundreds of dollars a day?

I know at least one family in Cheyenne who had their teenager at a residential treatment center in the state for seven weeks until insurance coverage ran out. Even though their teen still needed help, they withdrew her because they didn't know what else to do. Isn't that a crock?

There are organizations in Wyoming that address these issues. I'm a board member of one -- UPLIFT of Wyoming. You can always talk to someone at UPLIFT. Go to http://www.upliftwy.org/.

Do you have any tales (uplifting or horrifying) about efforts to get mental health care in Wyoming -- or any other rural Western state?

To be in D.C. in the springtime

One of the great things about D.C. is that there is always something going on. When you work there, it's old hat, maybe even annoying -- maybe you don't even notice the latest demonstration or rally. But to us rubes from the hinterlands, it's wildly entertaining. Anything's better than sitting on the general store bench watching yet another tumbling tumbleweed blow by.

When I was visiting the Capitol this week, Dick Cheney and his entourage blew by. I was just minding my own business, sauntering along the sidewalk past a demonstration of disabled Americans in motorized wheelchairs, when I came to an abrupt halt at the edge of the U.S. Capitol vehicle entrance. A crowd of people I took for tourists lined the sidewalk, waiting for something. A half-dozen cops milled about. I was on the cell phone, trying to straighten out a situation at home (the cattle had stampeded again!) and I thought that the cops were stopping us so the wheelchair-bound protesters could pass by.

Just as I was ringing off, a posse of official Harleys started up with a rattling roar, and a trio of Capitol Cop cars started to roll down the driveway. Then all the sirens came on, and a fleet of black limos and SUVs pulled out of the bowels of the Capitol Building and rolled down the drive. They moved fast, but the tourists lining the street had their cameras out, wildly snapping photos. I asked the guy nearest to me if this was the president's motorcade. "No, it's the vice president." I stepped away from the curb, as if burned by the cinders of hellfire. The Prince of Darkness was passing by. I suppose I should have bowed my head and uttered a prayer to St. Michael to protect me from the fiend. But I stood gawking along with my fellow gawkers. One black SUV had its window open and inside was a soldier in black cradling an automatic weapon. Now that's firepower!

The motorcade passed in a flash, although we could hear the sirens for another five minutes. I thought to myself that the Veep's pals in the oil and gas business would be mighty proud of their boy on this day. That V.I.P. parade was burning some prodigious amounts of fuel. And they must do this every day that Congress is in session, as the Veep is president of the Senate, standing by the break a tie on the Republican side. What sort of nefarious deeds had he been up to on this day, I wondered.

The rest of my afternoon was uneventful. I walked back to my hotel via the National Mall. I stopped for a few minutes on a bench by the National Gallery of Art fountains. I occasionally ate my lunches here when I worked in D.C. Always cooler here in the summer, with the trees and the mist blowing off the fountains. Nobody ever bothers you, unless it's some tourists looking for a bystander to take a group photo.

I visited the World War II Memorial for the first time. It's strangely bland, especially in comparison to the legendary Vietnam Wall and the stark soldier statues at the Korean War Memorial. The more controversial the war, the more invigorating the monument. Not sure if that's true. If it is, the Iraq War Memorial slated for the Mall some time in the next 20 years will be a doozy. I always linger by the Vietnam Memorial (shown above). I'm not a Vietnam veteran, but a product of those times. Something haunting about the black granite wall that will never leave me.

I recall the turmoil surrounding the memorial's design. "A black gash of shame," one critic called it. But it was promoted by Vets and had enough clout on Capitol Hill to weather the storm. The day I was there, a steady stream of tourists walked the path that flanks the wall. One young kid was doing a rubbing of one of the 58,000 names. Maybe he was a grandson or a relative, or maybe doing it for a class assignment. A group of Chinese tourists filed by. Couples and families. Some of the men looked old enough to be vets, but one can't be sure. The Wall draws all kinds. Some, obviously, have never been here. Like the guy who lives in this very white house....