Happy Fourth
This Fourth, I went down to the Mall to take in the sights. In the process I caught the Beach Boys who you see above. Or you would if I could have found a space on the capitol steps.
The Beach Boys mentioned that this was the 20th anniversary of not playing this gig. If you don’t know the story, James Watt banned them from the Mall in 1983. After a major bruhaha, Nancy Reagan invited them back, and they played in 1985. That was twenty years ago today.
A fun fact about James Watt, by the way. After leaving government he got involved in an influence peddling scheme at HUD, and was indicted on 18 counts of felony perjury, but ended up pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge to avoid jail time. To his credit he never had sex with “that woman.”
Of course, most people don’t remember that. They just remember he banned the Beach Boys, and replaced them with Wayne Newton. I remember the flap from the time, and his explanation that Wayne Newton more closely resembled Reagan’s constituency. Right on, I thought. Rich, over-rated, and completely out of touch.
Back to the present tense. At the other end of the Mall was a fundie gospel-rap show. They had a booth where you could fill out a questionaire, and find out if you are going to heaven or hell.
Fantastic, I thought. They could ask questions like:
- If Christ were alive today, would he be fighting for the rights of working class Americans, protecting the environment, making sure that everyone had proper medical care, or would he more likely be a laisse-faire industrialist, perhaps on the board of Haliburton?
- Which of the following is more of an abomination unto the Lord: gay marriage or preemptive war?
- Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord, but the Bush White House has made a point of taking revenge on their personal enemies. Who is right, Bush or the Lord?
It turns out that this was very different from the questionaire from the gospel-rap folks. Way different. To give them credit, their music wasn’t bad. At least they’ve evolved beyond Wayne Newton.
You may have read that they’re using the crowd leaving the Mall this evening as a test for evacuation in case of a terrorist attack. Of course, that makes the fireworks a simulated terrorist act, which I’ve got to say, takes a lot of the fun of it for me.
To get on to the Mall grounds, you had to pass through a security check point. It was pretty similar to security at the museums. Everyone with either a bag or an attitude got searched. The major streets have been blocked off with Metro busses and jersey barriers. Bicycle units are staking out the parks, and motorcycle units staggered every block or so.
You may notice from the photo above that my view of the Beach Boys included Army trucks. It could be that they were just symbolic, like the giant coffee pot they had next to the Hare Krishna cafe, though it could be that they’re there if the evacuation didn’t go as planned.
I decided not to stick around and find out.
