I just got back to Malibu, jet lagged but exhilarated from yesterday’s trip to the U.S. Capitol. The Georgetown University-sponsored political science group was a master class in U.S. governance. Even better than advertised, the full immersion experience put me literally in the seat of American power!I patiently waited my turn before sitting in Speaker Pelosi’s leather backed chair. The other students couldn’t have been friendlier. They were colorfully dressed thespians straight from Georgetown’s theatre department. The Civil War-era uniforms and immaculately presented Confederate flags really conveyed the sense of Civil War. One young man in buffalo hide and ivory horns told me, through grunts, that he was an anthropology/biology double major. The pyrotechnics were state of the art. The university spared no expense, even pumping the smell of urine and Redman chewing tobacco into the halls of power. Our young country got off to a rough start with the misplacement of 50 million or so Native Indians. Yesterday’s seminar at the Capitol restored my faith in American democracy. Never have I met a lovelier group of my fellow Americans. Never, ever, have I felt prouder to be an American.
Dan Bercu