Again with the republicans

Yesterday night, I took my new roommate, Jessica, out to her frist night out in Washington, DC. Jessica is the cousin of one of the skinheads and will take my room when I move out. We went out to Georgetown and met a bunch of Hill staffers and interns. Hmmm, no surprise considering that it's July in DC. One of the interns talked and talked about the new Visitor's Center that's being built and how her member of Congress really didn't like it and was very vocal about it. I think at one point she described him as, "cheap as shit." I really don't like change, I don't like to change things that don't look bad. I don't like the placement of the National WWII Memorial in the middle of the Mall and I see no reason to spend millions building a Visitor's Center to the Capitol. The intern's member of Congress didn't see a reason to spend all that money becuase it was redundant. Amazingly I agree with this republican. But I also have a problem with it in a more philosophical sense. Why put another layer of what will most likely be highly politized and spun tours and videos and presentation walls between the Members of Congress and their constituents? That was one thing I really liked about the Capitol. As Congress was in session, their constituents could be at that very moment lost in the bowels of the Capitol building. Now all of that is closed of to the public, somewhat understandable after 9/11, but then again, if they had good screening techniques, then they wouldn't have to worry about it. We live in a representative democracy, I don't see any reason why we should put up a Visitor's Center in front of the Capitol so people can learn about how Congress works. Why shouldn't they just go talk to their Congressman's staff or go see a session? Why go to a Visitor's Center when you've got the real thing yards away? Why should I have to spend millions of my tax dollars doing this, when the country is trillions in debt? Damn republicans.

I miss my Turk.