A Daily Dose of Inspiration

After eyeing the building that sits immediately diagonal to the Congressional Apartment building for several weeks, I finally managed to visit the Sewall-Belmont House this past Saturday. This historic house has been the headquarters for the National Woman's Party since 1929. The NWP was founded by Alice Paul and many other women suffragists in 1917. Alice and her comrades were considered extremists by the majority within the suffrage movement, but their actions were key to finally getting the 19th Amendment passed and they are the founding mothers of peaceful civil disobedience demonstrations here in the U.S. While I will admit that almost all of my knowledge of Alice Paul and her activist sisters comes from the HBO film Iron Jawed Angels, one of the staff members of the museum assured me that the movie is 100% accurate, minus a minor romance side story.

With my knowledge of the historical facts affirmed, I then proceeded through the museum. I got to see the sashes women wore during their marches and the banners that they held chastising the president as they picketed in front of the White House. There were also many photographs of angry men yelling at these women who boldly stood their ground and were subsequently carted off to jail for demanding their basic rights as American citizens. As an activist myself, it is truly inspiring to to hear the stories and see items from such an important campaign and to learn from these powerful women who really made a difference.

After my daily dose of inspiration, I headed off to Georgetown with a couple of other Glenn Fellows to shop and see the sights. We discovered just how wonderful, and cheap!, the DC Circulator is, which dropped us off right in the heart of Georgetown. After walking around the main drag of shopping there, we stopped for an afternoon snack, which in Georgetown everyone knows cupcakes to be the best choice to fill your tummy. I didn't quite have the patience to wait in line for Georgetown Cupcakes, so we "settled" for Sprinkles. I devoured my blueberry cupcake with lemon frosting and still slightly regret not getting a box of four. A few hours later we met up with more Glenn Fellows and ate a delicious dinner in Chinatown.

And so the weekend came to a close and it was once again time to get back to work. But even the fact that neither my apartment nor office currently have A/C didn't bring me down because I have one daily occurrence that is a constant and simple source of joy for me: waking up every morning and walking past the Supreme Court and the Capitol Building on my way to work. Being in the midst of so much history and such powerful and symbolic institutions is quite humbling and at the same time inspiring for me to continue to work for the public good. Passing by these two buildings on the way to and from work will never cease to give me a feeling of awe and a little daily dose of inspiration.

~CRP