Left Flank

I've returned from vacation in America, where my wife (on her second trip now to the States) and I visited the Capitol area of Washington, DC, central Maryland, Williamsburg and Richmond, Viriginia, and Orlando, Florida (my parents live nearby in Sanford). We rented a car on the third day to visit places, like all my old homes, schools, and memorable sites, as well as to buy steamed blue crabs at Gunning's. We then traveled by train the rest of the way, including a 16-hour trip in a second-class sleeper from Richmond to Orlando. It was a great trip, and there are pictures on the second sidebar, but only a fraction of the almost 250 I snapped. I will add captions and titles later. For now, let me sum up some of my conclusions from the trip.

1. Two Washington, DC museums, the Holocaust and the American Indian, stand out.

The Holocaust Museum is amazing, if in a somber sense. I've never visited a museum where the environment acted on me. Unfortunately, my wife and I were not able because of a lack of time, to complete the tasks. Once visitors receive an ID card with information about a Jewish victim, they are supposed to research at a later stage whether that person survived. I knew most of the basic historical facts offered throughout the exhibits. It was the temperature and odors in the building that affected me. One exhibit, which extended for two floors, particularly overwhelmed me. Hidden between walls covered with photographs of town-dwellers was a photograph of the town itself in 1945 completely incinerated. The realization, that no one in these photographs had lived, is very moving.

The National Museum of the American Indian affected me for one negative reason. There are some photographs of Plains Indian dancing, and we arrived in town unknowingly on the last night of a national powwow. But, amidst all the exhibits, there was only one small cubicle devoted to my family's nation, the Seminoles, and that exhibit was very incomplete. There was little mention of the three Seminole wars fought, ones in which my family survived to reside in Florida. There was very little mention at all of the so-called «Five Civilized Nations» and none of «The Trail of Tears». I asked my mother, a quarter-blood Seminole, who had been in contact with the Smithsonian about the exhibits, and she reinforced my concerns. Indeed, the museum is almost a Plains nation-only place, and there was a conscious prejudice against depicting certain aspects of American-Indian interaction, such as wars, although some mention is made of intermarriage. The overall theme seems to be to reconstruct an American Indian culture that no longer exists. I was very disappointed.

2. I was struck by how little had changed in Baltimore and Anne Arundel County, Maryland. I've not visited my hometown in almost ten years. Still, most buildings still exist, even with the same businesses. I guess change occurs slower than I presumed.

Steamed blue crabs, Maryland-style, are awesome!

3. In Williamsburg, actually at Jamestown, I had this epiphany. None of my family members are English! In 1607, at the founding of the Jamestown colony, my father's (and maternal great-grandfather's) family was still toiling in Germany, and the Seminole half was not yet existent. The actual settlement became very foreign to me, even though as a child I had absolutely been entranced by Williamsburg and Jamestown. Actually, I was most affected in the reconstructed church, where I realized, that I had no stake in the Christianizing mission of the early colonists. The accounts of English-Powhatan conflict began to assume greater dimensions.

4. Although I really wanted to visit John Marshall's house in Richmond, Virginia (he's my favorite «founder»), I have to recommend the Confederate White House. The tour is wonderful! The Marshall House curator gave us a good tour, too.

5. America really needs to spend more money on trains. My wife and i could have visited more places between Richmond and Orlando, if not for the crazy way the trains run in the Southeast. I wanted to visit Cowpens Battlefield in South Carolina, but the train would have had to return to DC just head southward again. The food was marginal, and the service was lousy. But, we would do it again, just for the solicitude and comfort of a sleeper car gliding down the tracks.

6. America needs a consumption holiday, in food and housing.

Alright, so it would have been better to convey my opinions in a timelier fashion, but that's the gist!