Morning on Capitol Hill

In the old days I used to get frustrated with DC maps because you frequently couldn't get there from here.  Now with GPS things are better.  Not.  You still can't get there from here, but now in a much more high-tech way.

The Supreme Court steps

This morning we rode the metro to Capitol Hill to visit the very uncatchily named General Board of Church and Society.  There, Amy spoke to us about the Methodist Building (the only non-government building on the hill) where the board resides and about the advocacy the board promotes.  It was a fascinating discussion on many levels.  One unintended moment:  Amy seemed surprised that the youth had not developed negative stereotypical views regarding the SNAP (Federal Food Stamps) program.  Truthfully, the youth are not aware enough to have views.  She had us work through an exercise to show how difficult it is to adequately feed a family solely on the SNAP program and asserted that proposed cuts to the program would be bad.

OK, but I felt a little funny.  If I advocate a position as true - not just good, but true - then there is no possibility that some other opinion might have any merit.  And as a result you might feel funny too.  It was a thought-provoking morning.

Food, and lots of it.

In the afternoon, once we found the Capital Area Food Bank (!) we had quite the experience.  Folks, we're doing pre-sort. Here are the boxes full of store-rejected food.  Dented, leaky, expired gets fed to the hogs (which, you understand, are not present.  They are offsite).  The rest goes to these dozen 6-by-6 bins by category.  Try not to get in the way of the fork lift or the other thirty people doing the same thing you are.  It reminded me of my experience driving bumper cars.

I haven't mentioned that we're having a great time here.  From the sidewalk in front of the church many impressive edifices are visible, including the Washington Monument straight down 16th St.  Washington is leafy, green, and busy.  Lots of construction and rehab going on.  Roads, buildings, construction cranes all over.  Krispy Kreme, CVS, and Starbucks close by.