(dc) the american way

today we piled 7 people in what used to be my vw bug and drove down to the mall, ostensibly to look at the solar houses (go colorado!) and throw around a frisbee. turns out that the mall was the place for both solar power and black power, as we saw louis farrakhan's motorcade storm by. starting at the west end, we walked through the solar houses, ending up in line for the rhode island design school's entry. the poor team leader had to shout at the top of his lungs as he described the unique design elements of their house to compete with the neighboring loudspeakers blasting black power from the capitol end of the mall. in the end, i was drawn out of line and onto the lawn to watch farrakhan's daughter introduce her father. eventually the others joined me and we sat and listened (all so very conscious of our non-blackness and perpetrator status) for a half hour or 45 minutes.

eventually we got thirsty and wandered over to the food and merch booths, where i bought a burrito.

the best part of the day for me was trying to find a place to discard my used alumnimum foil and empty soda can as we waited for george to retrieve the car from the garage under the reagan building. i'd been carrying them for blocks looking for a garbage can. i walked over to the two guards next to the garage entrance. i asked one of them where i might find a bin. he looked puzzled and then said, "i dunno - maybe down on the corner?" i said, "no, there's not one there, i looked." he said, "well, just look for a grassy area and toss them there." i gave him this look, like "huh? you're joking, right?" and he shrugged and said, "everybody else does it." he wasn't joking. i decided to keep looking, and found a garbage can about 50 feet from where the guards were standing. as i turned to walk back to the group, i noticed the sign above the door of the building: "Environmental Protection Agency."

god bless america. solar power, black power, and the american way (just toss your garbage in the grassy area over there).