All puffed up with vanity
We see what we want to see
To the powerful and the wise
The mirror always lies
Supernova embarked on a five-day trip to our nation's Capitol last week for business. He flew into Dulles International Airport on a non-stop flight from LAX.
It's always interesting to visit D.C. since it is the nation's epicenter of politics. At the same time, the massive number of contractors' headquarters surrounding the beltway gives the city that 'economics trumps democracy' vibe that our dear president has helped to foster during his engaging tenure.
The first thing Supernova noticed on the D.C. Metro rail line were the people. They were mostly all Caucasian (with a healthy dollop of African-Americans); the Latinos and Asians were virtually out of sight. Moreover, on the D.C. subway, many passengers were reading! This is something Supernova rarely sees on L.A.'s subway system.
Where the Latinos were, he had no idea. He only saw them in a few instances -- they represented the cleaning crew at the Hampton Inn where he stayed, and he saw them cooking food in the kitchens of some of the restaurants in which he ate. It felt like a different country what with all the pale skin abounding both in the subway and on the streets of D.C.
You might be wondering what kind of business Supernova was engaged in while in D.C. He participated in a series of meetings and conferences whose central theme was environmental protection. Even though there were people from all over the country at the conference, the environmental protection movement is really quite tiny. Supernova knows this because everywhere he goes, he sees people doing things that aren't very protective of the environment.
Why just today, Supernova was at the supermarket picking out some bananas when he encountered a woman putting her bananas in a plastic bag. Supernova has always wondered why so many people put their bananas in a plastic bag, so he asked the woman why and she said, "I don't know". Supernova then explained to her that many millions of plastic bags end up in the ocean each year. She replied that she knew, because she recently saw a documentary on ocean pollution. She said this while putting her bananas in a plastic bag.
Despite the prolific plastic bag use so indemic in our society, Supernova did notice that D.C. is far cleaner than L.A. He saw very little trash in the gutters and sidewalks, and the D.C. subway system has newspaper recycling bins all over the place. Also, since D.C. is such a pedestrian-friendly city, trash cans abound there.
[On a side note, Supernova did his part by bringing his own reusable mug on the airplane and to the conference, thus negating the need to use any disposable cups. Furthermore he brought all of his recyclables back with him to L.A., including the cardboard boxes from the little cereals he ate at the Hampton Inn, some plastic water bottles, and various newspapers.]
One of the reasons there are so many people walking on the streets of D.C. is because of that city's exceptional subway system. While not huge, the D.C. metro rail does criss-cross quite amply throughout D.C. and into Maryland and Virginia. If L.A.'s Mayor Villaraigosa and the L.A. City Council want L.A. to be a world-class city, they've got to build more underground rail in Los Angeles. Light rail doesn't cut it, since it gets stuck in traffic. And buses are obviously too crowded as they lumber along lurchingly at the whims of the SUVs in front of them.
Not a whole lot of time for site-seeing while Supernova was in D.C., but it didn't really matter since he lived there for a year and saw just about all of the tourist attractions. He was able to go out at night after the conferences to visit some attractions around Dupont Circle, Union Station and Metro Center.
As for the Hampton Inn in Crystal City: he highly recommends it. The rooms are big, the beds are comfortable and the free breakfasts are wonderful.
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