After a very successful Malaria of Wildlife workshop, what better way to spend the weekend than a visit to Washington DC. It has been rainy and chilly, but the museums are open and not crowded at this time of year. Some type of mini-hurricane is affecting the city, but I still see people of the nation’s capital jogging outside, and the tourists can never get enough of the monuments.

Gustave Caillebotte was one of the French impressionists, but not a starving destitute one, so besides creating his own works, he also collected his friends’. The exhibit at the National Gallery of Art opened my eyes to his unusual sense of perspective and diverse styles. The museum is vast and beautiful, with its interior courtyards and the marble columns and stairs. I believe, as it is with this gallery, that all museums worldwide should have free admission. Free admission encourages people to visit museums more than once, and also gives the flexibility to visit for a short time. I primarily focused on seeing this particular exhibit. Maybe our politicians of the world truly know what they are doing, and we need to have wars. But I believe that in the future, government spending will focus on protecting the environment and preserving the human condition through arts and culture.

I made my first visit to the museum of the National Archives, which houses the very faded original Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. There is also an exhibit of the Magna Carta and human rights. Most interesting to me personally was the information showing that before 1965 there were strict quotas on immigrants to the USA, and Europeans could enter this country easily, but people from China, India, and Africa could not. When my father entered the USA as a student in the late 1950’s, there were only about 100 Indians in the Bay Area. There were no Indian restaurants. It was a different world. I am one of the relatively few third culture kids, (with parents from two distinct cultures), of that generation. Only with age have I begun to understand how that has shaped my life, and I somehow relate to others that have similar multicultural backgrounds. The reality is that humans are flexible, and can adapt to new cultures very quickly, if they are allowed to.

The huge bronze statue of JFK’s head at the Kennedy Center lies at the junction of the entrances to the opera house and the symphony hall. There are computer screens that allow viewers to select videos of his lofty idealistic speeches, ranging from his initiation of the Peace Corps, to the moon landings. People have written volumes on whether the world would be better if he had survived. Can one individual politician have that much influence on humanity? I personally think not, and I always question whether there are evolutionary and genetic mechanisms underlying human deification. But it is undeniable that JFK was a charismatic speaker and delivered some great ideas. To me his bronze bust represents not a martyr, but a reminder of a different time. A time before I was born: but I am still close to people who remember him, so his history seems real. Olof Palme is the Swedish counterpart and the statue of Lincoln seems to serve the same purpose, although no one has any personal connection to Lincoln any more. Who will be the next American deity? Do they have to die to get that status? Is that why we don’t have gun laws? Interesting thoughts in my mind from this influential city.