Please indulge (or ignore) a thread: I first got to DC as a Capitol Hill reporter for the LA Times back in the 1980s, before a bomb went off near the Senate Chamber. I fell in love with the Capitol. Back then, no one even needed to wear credentials around their necks ...
Tourists would wander the place pretty much with no restrictions. My single favorite spot is the anteroom of what is now @senatemajldr office, which is the only place in DC that has been part of all 3 branches of govt at one point ...
It was where the Supreme Court once used to change into their robes and (am I right here?) the VP's office. The fireplace is where the British are said to have set Thomas Jefferson's personal library on fire to burn down the Capitol in 1814...
What I loved most was that the U.S. Capitol felt like where America came together. Things started to become more restrictive in 1983, when a bomb went off outside the Senate cloak room. After 9/11, concrete barriers went up. ...
I also developed a special affection for the Capitol police. Once, in the 1990s, I snagged tickets for my (very Republican) parents to get into the House Chamber for a presidential (Clinton) speech. (Don't ask how.) But we got caught on the wrong side of security. ...
I was panicked. Had they flown up from Texas for nothing? A Capitol cop recognized me, immediately understood the problem. He said nothing, just gestured to my parents and escorted them to the House Chamber. They felt like VIPs. The memory still brings tears to my eyes.
But bottom line: I love the U.S. Capitol. Walking those halls, you learn so much about what America is and what it wants to be. And I am heartbroken tonight. Not for a building, but for an ideal.
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