So today I was posted at the
"triangle" for the first time. The triangle consists of the Lincoln
Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and the Korean Veterans Memorial (the
three form the shape of a triangle in case you were confused). I ended up not
having any time to prepare for today so I went in blind this morning, not
having any specific research or preparation done for these sites. I ended up
being posted at Vietnam in the morning and then at Lincoln in the afternoon.
When I arrived at Vietnam I met a guy who has been volunteering at the site for
more than 17 years. He asked me if I was comfortable doing talks at the
memorial and I told him that there was a lot I didn't know so anything he could
share with me would be appreciated. That comment resulted in a two and a half
hour tour and explanation of all sorts of topics related to the memorial,
including the war itself, the story of the memorial and its construction, and
personal anecdotes about many of the names on the wall including the name of an
air force pilot who was listed as MIA but whose remains were later identified
in the tomb of the unknown soldier. So now I know much much more about Vietnam
than I did this morning!
I was supposed to be at Vietnam
until 2:00 and move up to Lincoln at that point, but at about 12:10 the ranger
in charge of operations at the triangle today came to me while I was eating
lunch and asked me if I could do the 1:00 MLK presentation at Lincoln. Things
had changed and some rangers had to be shifted so there was no one to cover the
program at Lincoln. Keep in mind that I have never even worked at Lincoln and
had had no time to prepare anything to do a talk about Lincoln and the
memorial, much less a special talk about Martin Luther King Jr. Well I of
course said yes and suddenly found myself faced with the prospect of trying to
put together a program out of my head since I had no resources available and
then going to give that program out in front of Lincoln in about half an hour
while also finishing lunch.
When I went out to the front steps
ten minutes before 1:00 I was greeted with a surprising sight. Typically
programs I have been giving have been for audiences ranging from 2-10 people.
It was immediately evident that this program was going to be very different. I
found myself looking at a crowd of people covering the steps of the
Lincoln Memorial and spilling into the plaza below. As I walked out I was
quickly approached by several people asking if I was going to be doing the
one o'clock program and I realized that all of these people were waiting
to hear the program that I was about to give. We typically do a short talk
about the "I have a dream" speech and play a selection from the
speech on the lower plaza of the Lincoln steps each day, but I had come up
with an idea that was rather larger than the norm on account of it
being the day that it was and once I saw the crowd that was gathered I
decided that rather than doing the program on the lower level I would instead
do it on the upper landing from the very same location that Dr. King
delivered his speech 47 years ago.
So I embraced the moment and
essentially improvised a 15-20 minute talk with no notes to a crowd of more
than 500 people gathered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. I began
with Jefferson and spoke of the ideals of freedom and equality that he has
espoused and how they found voice in the Declaration of Independence.
That led me into a discussion of Lincoln and his work to preserve these same
values in which I quoted the Gettysburg Address on three different occasions
and spoke about him setting events in motion that found greater fruition
nearly 80 years later when Marian Anderson performed in concert on the
steps of the Lincoln Memorial in spite of a clearly prejudiced refusal of indoor venues
due to the color of her skin. That led me to discuss the planned march on
Washington in 1941 by A. Phillip Randolph and others that was canceled due
to the intervention of FDR who asked them to stop the march and took action
to create greater equality in the workplace. This action was son
overshadowed by the US entrance into WWII and many young black men
enlisted and served in the ranks of the US armed forces, finding
equality amidst the horror of war. But upon returning to America
these same men found that they would not be treated in the same fashion at home
and rising discontent found a voice in the Montgomery Bus Boycott,
Sit-ins, and other planned action to fight for civil rights. This in turn led
to a revival of the planned march on Washington, only this time the march
would take place in late summer of 1963 and would be organized by all of the
"big six" civil rights organizations and would culminate in
a series of ten speeches delivered from the steps on the Lincoln Memorial,
an icon to freedom and equality.
Though each of the first nine
speakers at this event were notable figures in the Civil Rights movement, it
was the last speaker, a young minister coming from Montgomery, Alabama that was
the focal point of the crowd. And true to expectation when he took his
place at the podium Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr invoked the bible, Shakespeare,
the Declaration of Independence, The Gettysburg address, and the song "my
country tis of thee" as he spoke to a crowd of more than half a million
listeners about his dream of equality and freedom, a dream that his four
children would one day be judged on the content of their character
and not the color of their skin.
After this setup I then told
the gathered crowd that I was going to let Dr. King speak for himself and
pressed the play button on the stereo to play a recording of Dr. King's
speech in its entirety. Things were great for the first 20 seconds and then the
audio cut out. It just stopped and I couldn't get it to come back on. So here I
was, in front of all of these people and the speech wasn't going to play. I
didn't know what to do. And then someone in the crowd produced a transcript
of the speech, which I found in my hands and I suddenly knew exactly
what I had to do. So I turned back to the crowd, apologized for the
failure of technology, and declared that though I was certainly not Dr.
King, I was going to do the best I could to capture the essence of his
character as I read the words he spoke from that very spot on August 28,
1963. And I proceeded to deliver the speech in its entirely to a crowd of
500+ from the very spot that Dr. King had once uttered the very same
words.
It was one of the most powerful and
moving experiences of my entire life. As I came to the closing words of
the speech in which Dr. King quotes the old hymn declaring,
"free at last, free at last, thank God almighty I am free at last" I
was met with a roar of applause and nearly brought to tears as I realized that
I had unwittingly just participated in something that transcended my position
as a park guide in Washington DC, something that reflected the very core
of who we have been created to be, of the better angels of our nature
as Lincoln might have said.
I spent the next twenty
minutes talking to the crowd and then realized I was the only ranger on
site which meant that I was responsible for the 2:00 talk about Lincoln, which
I proceeded to also do on the fly, giving a 25 minute talk on Lincoln and
the memorial to a crowd of more than fifty who followed me around
inside the chamber. I repeated this talk at 4:00 as well. Quite the first day a
the site!
After getting off the work two other
rangers and I decided to walk to the Kennedy Center in order to attempt to
attend a special concert by India Arie in celebration of Dr. King. We were
actually not able to get inside the main auditorium, but were able to
watch the event via video feed on a large screen in the lobby, and thus
still participate to some degree. The reason we were unable to get inside
is that when we were nearing the building just before six we were stopped
outside so that President Obama could enter the building for a special
surprise appearance and speech. So I got to listen to his speech while watching
him on video in the room next door. Since we were outside the main
auditorium we were among the first people to exit the building following
the event and made it outside just before they temporarily shut the building
down so that the presidential motorcade could exit the Kennedy Center and
return the president to the White House. So I ended up standing on
the sidewalk directly in front of the presidential motorcade as Obama
and company passed in front of me. I was still in full uniform,
which is significant because there are certain situations in which
any unformed Park Ranger must stand at full attention and hold a full salute.
These situations do not occur in most parks, but in Washington DC
things are a little different. Once such situation is when
the president of the United States is passing. So I stood at full and
proper salute, in uniform, as President Obama passed in front of me.
It was a day to remember.
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