Several weeks ago, Oct.

Friday, November 02, 2001

Several weeks ago, Oct. 7 to 13 to be exact, my wife and I went to Gettysburg, Pa., and Washington, D.C., on a bus tour. This was my second trip to Gettysburg and our first visit to the nation’s capital city and several of its suburban communities.

During the three days we were actually in the District of Columbia and Virginia, visits were made to some of the places which have been such important parts of our nation’s heritage. These places included Mount Vernon, the Iwo Jima, Vietman, Korean War, Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials, the National Cathedral, Kennedy Center, the fairly new Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, Union Station, and just a portion of the Smithsonian Institution. I’ll have more information about the Smithsonian in a future column.

Arlington National Cemetery consists of 612 acres where 245,000 members of the armed forces from all our wars are buried. We visited the gravesites of President Kennedy, his brother Robert Kennedy, and saw other burial places of famous Americans and special military memorials from our tourmobile. A highlight of this visit was observing an hourly changing of the guard by soldiers from the elite Third Infantry Regiment at the Tomb of the Unknowns.

From a distance we saw the White House, all four sides of the nation’s Capitol building, the Pentagon, and the Washington Monument.

The Pentagon, actually located just across the Potomac river in Arlington, Va., is a huge structure which became the focus of news reports on and after Sept. 11. We saw four sides of this building, but not the fifth side where the airliner struck the structure.

All this may sound like an impressive list for a three-day visit. Yet, there’s so much more to see and do in this city. And right there is one of the real challenges with any trip to Washington, D.C. Another challenge is trying to adequately and honestly describe the people, monuments, memorials, buildings, and parks in this outstanding one-of-a-kind city.

Here in Albert Lea we have Central Park which was originally intended to be the city’s center. Other localities have town squares. Out in Washington the equivalent-plus is the National Mall. This wide park-like area goes from the Capitol building to the Washington Monument and on to the Lincoln Memorial for about three miles. When the weather is good, this is an excellent place for people watching.

Before going to Washington, I found out that Stephanie Brand, president of the Albert Lea-Freeborn County Chamber of Commerce from 1993 to 2000, would be starting her new position as Congressman Gil Gutknecht’s communications director on Oct. 1. Thus, I had the opportunity to interview her on Oct. 10 in Gutknecht’s office in the Cannon House Office Building. The article and photo in the Oct. 17, 2001, issue of the Tribune is based on that interview.

Also, that same morning I had the opportunity to visit with First District Representative Gil Gutknecht.

Our congressman came out of a committee hearing on computer security to spend a few minutes with my wife and I. What follows are some highlights of our conversation.

Gutknecht said he recently went to the Pentagon to observe the damage created by the airliner terrorists/hijackers. The debris has been cleaned up and the rebuilding has already started, he explained.

Like most of our nation’s senators and representatives, Gutknecht maintains two residences. One is in Rochester, and the other is a condominium located about five blocks from the Capitol building.

&uot;People tend to be bipartisan,&uot; and &uot;Things we thought were important on Sept. 10 really changed the next day,&uot; are two quotes I considered worthy of repeating for our readers. Another comment by Gutknecht was, &uot;Americans have an amazing ability to unite.&uot;

Regarding his life and duties in the nation’s capital city, Gil commented, &uot;There’s an excitement and tempo to this place you can’t find in any other job. … We’re making a difference every day.&uot;

Feature writer Ed Shannon’s column appears Fridays in the Tribune.