Washington D.C, April 2013: The cherry blossoms bloomed late this year, which has caused disappointment for a lot of hopeful spring breakers.
I’m lucky enough to be staying on a couple of extra days during my spring break exploring Washington D.C, as I weigh certain college acceptances. My favorite destination after the obligatory viewing of the White House, Capitol Building, and Washington Monument has always been the Newseum. As a budding journalist, I look forward to helping history be recorded.
There seems to be a multitude of media outlets these days, but at the end of the day, we tend to take for granted the sweat and sacrifices of the men and women in the news media who bring us our world, in real time. The Newseum is on Pennsylvania Avenue, which has always been known as “newspaper row†because of the many out-of-town newspapers that have offices along 14th street, including the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer, and so on.
This 1.2-mile corridor has been the setting of everything that embodies the First Amendment, and has seen inaugural celebrations, presidential funeral precessions, and demonstrations. The national press building on 14th Street is also home to many news bureaus and international news media.
In my opinion, the most impactful exhibit at the Newseum is the 9/11 Gallery, which evokes the same visceral feeling as going to a holocaust museum. There’s a dark room that tells the dark tales that unfolded on that Tuesday morning through video clips and interviews. The room even has boxes of tissues placed around the room, which I’m sure are replenished frequently.
It is eye opening to witness the bravery of the media in covering a human disaster on such a grand scale. As buildings were crumbling and tumbling, women and men hurtled towards danger to bring the world as much truth as they could garner. It made me realize the importance of delivering information to the public, and to recognize the immense bravery of those who risked their lives in order to serve their passion of observing, discerning and delivering vital information.
I also got a chance to get a sneak peak of the soon-to-be-opened JFK exhibit, as 2013 marks the 50th anniversary of his assassination. Never-before-seen private family footage will be revealed to the public, giving us a very human glimpse into the lives of the Kennedy Camelot.
Another really interesting feature of the Newseum is the daily news gallery – a wall entirely dedicated to the front pages of newspapers all across the world from that day, including every state in America.
News is often deemed to be depressing, but one of the more glorious television reports that came out of left field to the whole world was the demolition on November 9th, 1989 of the Berlin Wall. The Newseum features parts of the Brandenburg gate, rescued from the rubble.
Footage of unbridled happiness of citizens from one country being able to cross from East to forbidden West was an uplifting moment in world history, something the world got to see because of the existence of media.
So I’m back to Brentwood tomorrow, as the clock counts down to the end of our high school careers. You’ll read more about that in “Teen Talk†later this spring; not necessarily at the Newseum, but definitely in a Brentwood News at the end of your driveway.
