I recently took a trip to Washington, D.C. to visit a myriad of war memorials. I was in awe of the grandeur and honor they held, but also astounded by the amount of Romanesque architecture, symbols and more iconography. It is not something I believe the Capitol of the United States of America should display; it feels very un-American.
As someone born and raised in the U.P. who never traveled frequently out of state, I always wondered what DC would look like, after having seen countless photos of the Lincoln Memorial, Capitol Building, Washington Monument and more. It always seemed beautiful and inspiring. Once I started attending NMU, and began studying my major, English, the importance of symbols, language and any kind of display grew in importance. Underlying subtext verbally, written or displayed has a lot to say; from what I have learned in my studies. The subtext of Washington D.C. is that America is the new Roman Empire.
It is beautiful, but not something I think of as American, or holds the American ideals I was raised on. I am a fourth generation immigrant, with my grandparents moving to the country from the Mediterranean and Balkans. I also come from a long line of military members. So hearing stories of the founding fathers always resonated—immigrants fighting a far off tyrannical empire and forging a new way of government.
Nowadays the childlike fantasy of what America is, is gone, but I still have the ideals in my heart. Yet Washington D.C., with its marble columns, laurel crowns and presidents deified like Greco-Roman gods, feels like the antithesis of the patriotic nature of America’s founding.
Since then however, the United States has been a conquering country and gained land from: the First Nations, Mexico, the Hawaiian Kingdom and more. Our nation has expanded from ocean to ocean, with two states even beyond the borders of the rest and with a handful of territories spread across the world. America’s constitutional republic does share a lot with the Roman Republic of old, though with its varying and important differences. The deifying of leaders is also shared between America and Rome, with Abraham Lincoln, a notable president, sitting like the deity Jupiter in a temple.
The visit to DC really makes me wonder what being an American really is, between the way the capital displays itself and the childhood stories we grow up believing in.
