Committee of the Hole
Posted: Tuesday, December 02, 2008 12:58 PM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under:
Congress
From NBC's Wendy Jones
Under the calm gaze of the Statue of Freedom (actually a replica of the statue which graces the dome of the Capitol), leaders of Congress presided over the dedication -- finally -- of the Capitol Visitors Center.
The ceremony took place in the Center's Emancipation Hall -- as
Nancy Pelosi remarked, "The Capitol was built by slaves ... it is appropriate this center is ready for 2009, which is the bicentennial of the birth of
Abraham Lincoln."
The Librarian of Congress, James Billington, noted that "Congress has always promoted citizen education...through land grant universities and the G.I. Bill ... Congress has sought to create for the U.S. a well-educated body politic."
He described the new Center as "a splendidly presented civics lesson ... and an attempt to make the Capitol more accessible."
House Republican leader John Boehner was the first to mention two Capitol Police officers, John Gibson and J.J. Chestnut, who were slain in 1998. Their deaths, according to Boehner, "sparked Congress to act on this long-delayed project." He noted that "it took several generations and a bloody civil war to end slavery...today we mark the opening of the Visitors Center...the first addition built to meet the needs of the people, not just members of Congress."
Majority leader Harry Reid reminisced about his days as a Capitol policeman, working the swing shift. Almost every night, renowned House member Carl Hayden would be wheeled in to watch as military bands played for the entertainment of tourists. He recalled the difficulty of converting the East Front from a parking lot, and (amid laughter) recalled that "in summer you could smell the tourists coming into the Capitol."
Today's center boasts a statue of Nevada's Sarah Winnemucca, the first Native American to have a book published.
Referring to the motto on the Great Seal, Pelosi said that "So confident were they that they said it would be for the ages...their faith in God, their faith in themselves, their faith in the future...they predicated it on the fact that each generation had the responsibility to make it better for the next...this became known as the American dream."
