This article is published in issue 44 of Vanity Fair on newsstands until 29 October 2024.
Next November 5th America will choose its president. And the capital Washington DC – where three days before the elections the Women’s march to the White House to claim equality and rights – awaits their fate in an unreal climate. The last time ended with five deaths and 2,500 unfortunates to the storming of the rooms of Capitol Hillthe Capitol. It was January 6, 2021, Donald Trump supporters they responded to his call by breaking down barriers and
attacking anyone who tried to defend themselves with sticks and stinging spray. An episode classified by the FBI as an “attempted insurrection”. Which left marks on minds, but not even a commemorative plaque in the building, except for a medal awarded to the Capitol Police, displayed for a few weeks and then forgotten in some drawer.
“Many have left office or are being treated for the effects of post-traumatic stress,” says a guide, “but there are parliamentarians who do not recognize the political responsibilities behind the assault and prevent it from being commemorated.” And he says it under the dome of the National Statuary Hallwhich preserves the images of those who made this country great, in an alternation of stories that tell of its now blurred colours: there is Thomas Edison next to the Indian Chief Standing Bear. The musician Johnny Cash close to the California evangelist Junípero Serrasanctified by Pope Francis. The President Eisenhower next to the most moving statue
of all, that of Rosa Parks portrayed with her little bag resting on her knees, the African American who in 1955 refused to sit in the seat reserved for blacks on the bus taking her home from work in segregationist Alabama.
More than a city, Washington DC is a deck of tarot cards. A forest of symbols where every card you draw with your gaze seems capable of saying something about the past and present of each of us. The obelisk that stands 170 meters high in the heart of the capital, for example, is an esoteric emblem that confuses, if you think about how unclear the distinction between democracy and freemasonry was for the fathers of the country.
At the top of the stairs National MallWhere Martin Luther King said I have a dream and then he was murderedthere is the colossal statue of Abraham Lincoln. Which in fact, however, is a funerary mask, given that the cast of the face was taken after the fatal attack on April 14, 1865, while attending a performance from a box at Ford’s Theatre, right here in Washington. A stone’s throw from the White House, the asphalt of two blocks was painted with the now famous writing Black Lives Matteryellow characters 15 meters high that are translated by the
chills: “Black lives matter”. As if it needed to be said.
In a capital where one in two citizens is black and hosts the National Museum of African American History and Culture, inaugurated by Barack Obama while Michelle, at his side, could not hold back her tears. A distressing spiral that is visited in reverse: first you go underground,
among the ghosts of the 12 million African women, men and children captured and led to the Americas, the largest forced migration in the history of humanity. Then we gradually move up to the years of the War of Independence, when the English and Americans enlisted slaves in exchange for the promise of freedom. The first ones spoke. The latter almost never. Also because the founding fathers were slavers: among the first 18 presidents, 12 owned human beings. And the same George Washington at his death he controlled 317: 123 owned while the others in
rent from a neighboring estate.
A 30 minute taxi ride is enough to visit Mount Vernonthe farm on the Potomac River where Washington lived and is buried, under a brick crypt without fanfare or heroic mottos. In the center of a plantation where in winter the laborers cut blocks of the frozen river with their bare hands to fill the galleys of the president, who loved very cold champagne. In his will he expressed the desire to free them all including Frank Lee, the faithful butler. While Hercules Posey, the chef famous for his elegant clothes that he paid for by reselling kitchen scraps, had already fled
for a long time. In the garden, strings of twine mark the graves of 87 slaves who lived here, and all
every day a volunteer pronounces their names near the mounds of earth where children place stones with the words Never Forgotten written on them. And to sit and reflect on these souls is heartbreaking.
Washington forest of symbols, it was said. There is the headquarters of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The Spy Museum and Vietnam memorial with its 58 thousand names engraved on a granite slab, constantly updated. There is Arlingtonthe largest military cemetery on the planet. And it Smithsonianthe largest free museum system in the world. City with 170 embassies gathered around Dupont Circle, which every May open their doors for Passport DC, the diplomatic carnival that makes the divisions and
wars. At the center of the neighborhood is the Dupont Circle Hotelwith the restaurant Pembroke where politicians and businessmen meet: «With Trump in the White House, tourism in the city has collapsed» blurts out an official from the Interior Department, «it’s best for Washington not to win anymore».
Also because in America there is a political migration underway«and people prefer to move to states that promote more similar values. Half the country doesn’t understand what the other half has in mind, and vice versa” says a lobbyist met in The Ardentthe favorite restaurant of Kamala Harris and the Obamas, who for security reasons avoid the main entrance entering from the kitchens: “If you want to be sure of seeing a politician in Washington, you have to be a dishwasher”, smiles Rita, the restaurant’s PR manager . Four out of five Americans, according to Georgetown University, think democracy is under threat. Not by terrorists. Not from China. But from their fellow citizens. And yet “understanding is a two-lane road that is achieved by opening up to others”, said Eleanor Roosevelt. Let’s hope that next November 5th, if not God in
person, at least common sense bless America.
To subscribe to Vanity Fair, click here.
Source: Vanity Fair
I’m Susan Karen, a professional writer and editor at World Stock Market. I specialize in Entertainment news, writing stories that keep readers informed on all the latest developments in the industry. With over five years of experience in creating engaging content and copywriting for various media outlets, I have grown to become an invaluable asset to any team.
