Two Moments, One Movement
"Maybe it meant something. Maybe not, in the long run… but no explanation, no mix of words or music or memories can touch that sense of knowing that you were there and alive in that corner of time and the world. Whatever it meant.…"
-Hunter S. Thompson
March 27, 2013, Washington, DC: I'm supremely exhausted after spending two days documenting the civil rights movement unfolding down the street at the Supreme Court, but I had to share my two favorite photos from the day before I crash, turn back into a pumpkin, and resume my normal life tomorrow. The first is this image I can't shake of a young girl on her father's shoulders waving an American flag outside the Supreme Court as justices within heard arguments for and against extending federal benefits to same sex couples like her parents. The second, included below, is a photo I snapped of plaintiff Edie Windsor, the woman challenging the Defense of Marriage Act, leaving the press conference that followed this morning's arguments. My bruised toes from the camera crews that nearly trampled me running to get the shot are my reminder of this moment in a movement. I was reminded, too, today that although those of us who live in the neighborhood get good at becoming unimpressed by what happens on Capitol Hill, sometimes it's impossible not to get swept up in the wave. Sometimes it's impossible not to see this place like a tourist and to appreciate what it feels like to witness an incredibly cool moment in history.
Related Posts on Neighborhood Nomads:
- Big News in the Neighborhood (March 26, 2013)
- Hidden Beauty and Unnoticed Oddities (February 28, 2012)