We made a brief stopover in Washington, D.C., so Ben could meet up with a college friend and interview him for his blog, an exploration of youth in politics. Matt Segal, who runs a voter-empowerment foundation in the city, is one of those dynamic young politicos who ages ten years immediately upon graduating, wearing suits and managing interns while the rest of us move into mom’s basement and watch reruns of “Law & Order” all day, emerging periodically to refill our cereal bowls.
I lived in D.C. two summers ago, and it was pretty much as I left it: Hot, moist, and swimming with yuppies chatting on cell phones and trying not to look uncomfortable in their three-piece suits.
“This town is so young, it’s ridiculous,” Ben’s friend Alice, who put us up for the night, told us as we attempted to navigate a series of congested intersections and traffic circles. “Everybody here is 35 and under. And it’s scary, because these people run the country.” She added that Congressional staffers are paid so stingily that the pool of young professionals entrusted with this task is mostly limited to wealthy white kids whose parents can afford to send them rent checks.
Walking in the Northwest Quadrant from DuPont Circle eastward has the same feeling as visiting a museum or going out to a nice restaurant. You feel as though you are someplace rare and important, someplace you dress up to go to. You also feel as though you are being watched all the time by disapproving elders who fear you might break something if left unmonitored. Matt quoted us a statistic that claimed Capitol-area professionals are video-recorded 173 times per day without knowing it.
The humidity once again drove us out of the city early. And like fools, we fled south.
Posted from Appeley Mead Lane, Charlotte, North Carolina.
