Ms. Mosley Goes to Washington
The Planning I usually just want to stay home and watch Netflix over Spring Break because I am so tired from teaching. I certainly don’t want to spend the time reading about U.S. History and Government and walking miles around the nation’s capital to visit monuments and museums. But having a student teacher this semester has given me more time and energy to plan ahead and dig deeper into new content. And when my family demanded that all my birthday money from this year be spent on something fun and not just diapers, I decided to plan a trip to D.C. With the change in the curriculum, I will be teaching American History II, Civics and Economics, and (hopefully still) Honors Sociology in the future. So my plan was to focus on civil rights and government on this trip, and to see some of the more recently added museums and memorials that I haven’t been to yet. Half the fun of a trip is in the planning, so I really spent a lot of time researching what I wanted to do. I even learned a lot in the process. I had no idea how much more difficult it has become since 9/11 to get a tour of the White House. You should request the tour about 3 months in advance, and just to be put on the waiting list you have to send in all of your information so you can be cleared with a full background check. Getting passes to see the Senate in action was easier, though it does require making arrangements with your Senator/Representative or Embassy if you are not a citizen. There is no such process to be allowed to sit in an oral argument of the Supreme Court – you just have to get up crazy early to go stand in line, but more on that later. After getting my rejection email from the White House tours office, my only options were to take a Virtual Tour and re-watch my favorite episodes of the West Wing – good thing my hotel had Wi-Fi… Once I had my agenda set, I went to the Leesville library to check out books on the topics I was going to focus on during the trip. I actually used the library catalogue and checked out real, honest-to-goodness books. I can’t remember the last time I did that instead of just Googling it. I read about things like the Civil Rights movement, the history of the Library of Congress, and recent landmark Supreme Court cases. Even though I know a lot from teaching these subjects, I found myself delightfully surprised at the new information and photographs I found in these books. With the magic of the internet, I can give you some links to see and read for yourself, but you should really try looking at the books in the library sometime. On Civil Rights:
So, I’ll skip all the drama of the crazy weather that wreaked havoc on my plan. Sleet and snow on Sunday…sunny and seventy by Wednesday. But with the help of my Post-It note itinerary and my Explore D.C. app, I figured out how to make it all work. Instead of just listing out all the places I visited and exhibits I saw, I am going to tell you about three of the most interesting experiences I had. |
Extra Credit Assignment You may earn up to 1 point on your 4th Quarter grade for each of the following three options, with a maximum of 3 points total for doing all of them really well. Points will be awarded based on the thoughtfulness and quality of your work. You must follow all of the directions to earn the maximum points, and I will not accept any extra credit after the deadline has passed. You may not work together, and if you violate the Honor Code you will not receive any credit. Option 1 Respond to three of the topics in my essay using a link provided. Write at least a full paragraph for each one: tell me why you choose it, what you learned from the source I gave you, and then what you learned when you looked for other information on that topic. Use reliable academic sources, and include a link/citation for each one. Also, make it obvious to me that you actually read my essay instead of just clicking on the links. Option 2 Tell me about a personal experience that you have had that taught you about American history and government. You could focus in-depth on one experience like I did, or you could give several examples of smaller experiences. Consider trips you have taken, your favorite historical movies and books, family members that fought in a war or participated in a social movement, etc. Write at least three full paragraphs with specific details and full elaboration. Add pictures and links to online resources. Option 3 Make a plan for a virtual field trip that includes sites representing different time periods and places important to U.S. History. Write at least one paragraph explaining your choices, and then make a list of the sites that includes a link to an online resource and at least 2-3 sentences about what you learned from that source. Use the following checklist to make sure you cover a variety of time periods and geographic locations. Remember to focus on U.S. History, not just tourist attractions.
|
Attending the U.S. Supreme Court
Getting to see the Supreme Court in action is kind of like survival of the fittest. The website says that the lines form early, but you have to do some detective work to figure out just how early you need to be there depending on the type of case being heard that day – you might have to get there bright and early or you may have to camp out overnight. Once you are there, it becomes clear that the “get there early to stand in line” procedure described on the website is not as simple as it sounded. On the first day, my Dad and I were in line by 6:00 am but still did not make the cut because the case drew the attention of several groups of lawyers and students who had special access and filled up the seats. After waiting in the freezing cold for several hours, Dad decided to at least go in and get the 5-minute tour. But I was determined to hear an entire argument, so the second morning he dropped me off at 5:00 am with a blanket and my iPad. I made friends with the family in front of me in line and we talked the whole time, a lot about the American educational system. The Dad was from Germany, the Mom was from Brazil, and they were living temporarily in Virginia while the Dad works as a translator for the government and their daughter goes to law school. The group behind me in line included a woman who works for a federal district court in Alaska, so we talked some about the court system and how we are both the kind of geeks who actually want to get picked to be on a jury but keep getting passed over. Once I made the cut to get inside, I drank hot chocolate in the cafeteria and waited for time to line up again before entering the court. Of course, you cannot take even the possessions that made it through the security check into the court, so you have to put everything in a locker for about two hours. In the final line, we all waited anxiously discussing the case, jittery from lack of sleep and being parted from our smartphones, and giggling when we got harshly scolded by the Security Officers for being too loud. As fun as all that was, the hour or so in the courtroom was the best part. Even though the case wasn’t very controversial, the dialogue between the Justices and the lawyers was thrilling to me. It was much less formal than I thought it would be, and some of the Justices even made jokes at times. What I liked the most was how they seemed to play devil’s advocate to both sides, so it really forced each lawyer to defend their position as vigorously as possible. The case centered on a man who stole checks, altered them in order to get about $1,500 worth of merchandise from Target, and then returned everything for cash. His state charged him with bank fraud. The plaintiff’s main argument was that the man intended to defraud Target, not the bank, and the resulting punishment of 3 years in prison was too harsh. The lawyer for the government argued that the altered checks constituted bank fraud, and that the statute written by Congress did not include the distinction of intent. I’m not sure how the Court will decide, and I will have to wait until the Opinion is delivered this summer to see. It seemed to me that they actually agreed with the Plaintiff that the punishment was too harsh and that Congress did not mean for every case of fraudulent check writing to end up a federal offense. But, they also struggled to find a way to interpret the statue more specifically to help exclude minor offenses that may be the result of the criminal’s ignorance of how corporations and banks work together. |
Sunrise, day 2. View from the line was the U.S. Capitol.
Coveted placeholder ticket at the U.S. Supreme Court.
Loughrin v. United States Case I heard argued in the Supreme Court on bank fraud (read explanation to left). McCutcheon v. FEC This Opinion delivered the week I was in D.C. received major media attention, equating aggregate individual campaign contributions to free speech that cannot be limited. This has major implications for Federal Election Commission regulations. Read the New York Times report and then for fun, watch it on the Colbert Report. This case is related to another landmark case from 2010, Citizens United v. FEC. You can also read about other historical landmark decisions or other current cases being heard by the Supreme Court this year. |
My Own Personal Civil Rights Retrospective
I started at the Washington Monument, like they did on the day of the march.
Then I made my way to the Lincoln Memorial and sat on the steps as I listened to the entire “I Have Dream” speech. Afterwards, I walked to the MLK Memorial. To finish, I went by the White House in honor of the first African American president and over to the site where they just began construction on the Museum of African American History and Culture. |
Disappointed that there is currently no Civil Rights museum in Washington, I had to do some research to find different exhibits on the topic in various sites. There were several exhibits out there, in honor of the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington last year. I really enjoyed looking at the pictures and reading the information about them, but there was still a limited amount in each individual place. So, I came up with an idea to help commemorate the March on my own. I found, not only the entire speech made by Dr. King, but many of the performances sung that day on You Tube. I made a March on Washington Playlist that I could listen to as I walked a path around the Mall. It was a beautiful, moving experience. I waited until the weather was perfect, and had already seen all the March on Washington and Civil Rights exhibits so I could think about them along the way. The only problem that occurred was streaming video for that long over 3G was glitchy and drained all the battery from my phone, so I couldn’t take as many pictures as I’d have liked. I wish I could have gotten another picture of MLK showing the full effect of the mountain of “despair” that you walk through before you come to Dr. King carved out of the stone of “hope” that has been pushed forward out of the mountain. So, I just played around with Google Earth for the first time and created a 3D picture for you. The other thing you can see if you visit the site in Google Earth is how the monument is situated right between the Jefferson and Lincoln memorials. Hopefully you know enough history at this point to understand the significance... |
Cherokee Days at the American Indian Museum
The American Indian Museum has a different feel to it than the others in the Smithsonian. The most striking feature is the architecture. There are very few straight lines or right angles in the museum, inside or out. Even the introductory film is in a circular room where the audience sits around the circle watching the film projected on textile rugs hanging in the center. There is a screen on the domed ceiling and another on the floor so that there are three images flowing simultaneously at all times. All around the room, there are sculptures and artifacts in cases that light up at different times throughout the film.
Fortunately, on this day the museum was having a Cherokee festival that really brought the whole place to life. It was then that I realized they had set it up to be more like a cultural center than a traditional museum. The main floor has an enormous space for tribes to come display their culture, and a stage area for performances (see video of the Quail Dance). I participated in a skit that explained why the Cherokee have a matrilineal heritage and a group dance where the audience danced hand in hand with the native Cherokee in a line that started off on the stage area but ended up weaving throughout the main lobby.
There were two bands of Cherokee there – from North Carolina and from Oklahoma. The ones from Oklahoma were the descendants of the Cherokee that were forced out during the Trail of Tears. The ones from North Carolina’s ancestors either escaped and hid in the Appalachians during Indian Removal or came back years later. I learned even more about the Trail of Tears in a lecture I attended. After attending these events, I finished touring the rest of the museum and learned about more tribes from throughout the Americas and how they have changed over time and deal with their different social, economic, and political issues. I plan to visit Cherokee, NC sometime this summer with my family to see the reservation and museum there. I have too many notes and informational packets to show you, but this website has a lot of the information that they were sharing at the museum that day.
Even the cafeteria was different than the others. Instead of there just being stations for salad, sandwiches, pizza, etc., they had stations for different regions of the Americas that featured authentic cuisine from that region. It was a little more expensive, but it was the best meal I had in D.C. Looking at the museum’s calendar, it looks like they have festivals like this for different tribes throughout the year. I would recommend that you try to go during one of these events so you can get the full experience.
If you get a chance to visit D.C. I highly recommend these other sites. They also now all have extensive digital resources that could be used in your research. Free Admission
|
If you do visit D.C. as a young person, please do me a favor. Don’t be loud and obnoxious like every group of students I saw on my trip. There is a time and a place for everything. It is okay to play around and pose for silly selfies at the Zoo or the Air and Space Museum, but not at the Vietnam Memorial or the Holocaust Museum.
Try to be aware of people around you, so you don’t knock someone over who is reflecting on the Emancipation Proclamation or photo bomb someone who is taking a picture of the WWII Memorial in memory of their grandfather who was stationed in the Pacific. Plus your parents have probably paid good money for you to actually learn something while you are there. Let’s not give visitors to our country the impression that American youth are shallow and oblivious. |
Postscript
I was so glad to see that African Americans and American Indians are finally being more represented in the Smithsonian, and now what about women? I’m not saying that there necessarily needs to be a whole separate museum, but maybe. There are a few nods to women here and there for service in wartime or participation in social movements. But, the biggest exhibit for women right now is a display of the First Lady’s Inaugural Dresses. Yes, they are pretty, but I want to see more about Harriet Tubman and Clara Barton and Jane Addams and Mother Jones and Susan B. Anthony and Frances Perkins and Rosa Parks and Betty Friedan and Sandra Day O’Connor and So Forth…
I was so glad to see that African Americans and American Indians are finally being more represented in the Smithsonian, and now what about women? I’m not saying that there necessarily needs to be a whole separate museum, but maybe. There are a few nods to women here and there for service in wartime or participation in social movements. But, the biggest exhibit for women right now is a display of the First Lady’s Inaugural Dresses. Yes, they are pretty, but I want to see more about Harriet Tubman and Clara Barton and Jane Addams and Mother Jones and Susan B. Anthony and Frances Perkins and Rosa Parks and Betty Friedan and Sandra Day O’Connor and So Forth…