Photo by María Helena Carey
Recently, I read an article where the writer wanted to disprove the stereotype that “everyone in Washington is from somewhere else”. I chuckled, realizing this mirrored the feelings of a commenter on my first blog post here, who felt my point of view was very narrow in stating that, in my first days in Capitol Hill, it took me a long time to meet someone who was native-born.
Well, for starters, the commenter is right: points of view tend to be rather narrow– they are, after all, unique perspectives and my experience is not necessarily the experience of every single immigrant to the Nation’s capital. Any of the presumably DC natives I met during the first five months or so before I became friends with a known native could have turned around and told me, “Oh, hey, by the way, I was born in DC! Did you know that?” but it just never happened.
This brings me to one of those quirky little things that from my viewpoint tend to happen at least to some of us once we move to DC, and not before: politics.
Politics: such a natural shoo-in of a topic when you are in Washington, isn’t it? I mean, DC is the mecca of every single person who ran for student body president and whatnot; surely only the politics-hungry move here and make this their home, right?
But what happens when your reasons for moving to DC have little to nothing to do with politics? Or, even, Higher Power forbid, what if you end up moving to DC and do NOT care for politics? Then what?
I think you probably end up going through something akin to the five stages of grief, only that they are more like the five stages of becoming one with your Type-A personality. With pardons to Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, I present to you my thoroughly unscientific and completely biased Five Stages of Capitol Hill Politics Awareness:
First comes Denial. Surely the city is called Washington, D.C., and I can see the Capitol from my street. But, hey, it’s just another city. It’s nothing to do with me, or with who I am. Just to be sure, though, I’m going to skip reading the paper.
Then comes Awe. Suddenly there is a surge of that same feeling you got when you first saw the monuments, but it lasts longer and longer, and it follows you around and sets your spine atingle when you suddenly turn onto PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE! Oooh! Wait– was the jaywalking man I nearly ran over Leon Panetta? Wow!
The third stage is Jadedness: that feeling that if you should hear one more mention of “the nation’s capital” you might have to have people restrain you, lest you unleash your fury on them– only if you weren’t so over everything. Big deal. It’s just DC.
Fourthly, we have Curiosity. You discreetly pick up your seatmate’s discarded Politico and surreptitiously start leafing through it “just because”. You find yourself actively seeking C-SPAN, maybe just to see out the window on the set and check the weather through Washington Journal. Maybe, just maybe, you’ll squeeze in a walk by the Newseum, to see what the headlines might look like in less news-fortunate places. Huh. You had no idea that there was a newspaper called the Register-Bee.
Fifthly and lastly, you have Acceptance. This is also known as either Welcome Home! if you find yourself siding with the Democrat point of view; or Eternal Foot-in-Mouth Disease if your tea leaves come up elephants. Or, alternately, you could just goad people who want to try to convince you of the virtues of their point of view by declaring yourself an independent. But chances are that once you’ve accepted that it’s okay to let the ways of the capital into your life, you will actually take a stand; educate yourself on issues; stop bully lawyers dead on their tracks once in a blue moon; and finally come clean that you (gasp!) actually enjoy watching Washington Journal from time to time.
Cher called in once, you know.