WWII fountain

WWII Memorial

Lincoln Memorial at night.

The view from the Jefferson Memorial at sunset.

The Jefferson Memorial at sunset.

Monday, July 3rd
Erie, PA to Washington, DC

Woke up this morning, crawled out of bed, and headed back to DC. Of course I had to caffeine up for the ride. The trip went smoothly; I made it back to DC in right at 6 hours including a few breaks. While I was on the road the students heard from Dr. Stephen Wrage
A professor of military ethics at the US Naval Academy. He spoke about “surgical air strikes in Afghanistan” that killed numerous civilians. I heard him speak last year at the Naval Academy about the Captain Rockwood case in Haiti. He is quite good and he was brought in to teach at the academy specifically to deal with ethics issues. His class is now a required course there. The students had favorable things to say about his presentation. I know it struck a cord because his class was the main topic of conversation later that evening.

When I got back to dorm at Albans the students were getting back from a viewing of Al Gore’s movie, “An Inconvenient Truth”. They all seemed to accept what the movie was saying but thought it was a bit to self promotional on Gore’s part. They felt that the message would have resonated more if he had left info about himself out a bit more.

After diner the whole crew went down to the mall for a two hour walking monument tour. Let me tell you that there is no place quite like the all at twilight. I suggest that the Jefferson Memorial has the most inspiring view at dusk. It was an enjoyable walk around our nation’s capital. It really is the best way to see the monuments.

I was able to see the World War II Memorial for the first time also. It was quite magnificent. I had heard criticisms that it did not fit in or detracted from the layout of the mall. I felt this was untrue.