When I read that "Congress" had passed the resolution, I thought to myself, here I am, a lawyer, 50 years old, and I never noticed before that the newspapers use "Congress" to mean the House of Representatives. Then I read that the Senate passed the bill early Friday. When was the final vote?
Did ya'll Left Coasters watch it on C-Span? Was it dramatic?
Looking at the news reports, must have been around 2:00 a.m. Must have been weird for the staff walking back to their cars on Capital Hill at that hour of the morning. Plenty of people have been killed there, although the crime rate has gone down due to increased security after 9/11. Used to be you could walk around the Capital late at night and there were only a few cops close to the building.
I use the Library of Congress for research, and it closes at 9-9:30. Walking back to my car or to the metro always made me very uptight.
Now there's a perimeter of Jersey barriers around all the Congressional buildings and several cops every block. Staff parks inside the perimeter or takes the metro. As near as I can tell, everybody important has a limo.
It's been raining for a couple of days, slow steady drizzle. I am imagining the echo of my footsteps at 3:00 a.m. on a deserted sidewalk, walking in the rain, after this momentous occasion. Must have felt surreal.
It feels surreal as I look out my window at the rainy street, wondering what's next. |
