Take the World War II Memorial—Please!
If architecture is, as Goethe put it, frozen music, then which classical opus is suspended within the granite semicircle of Washington’s National World War II memorial? To me, its bronze eagles, fountain sprays, and triumphal arches perfectly evoke "The Ride of the Valkyries." Not the original piece, made famous in Wagner’s eponymous opera, but the bizarro version screaming over Colonel Kilgore’s loudspeakers in Apocalypse Now: a death-from-above party jam meant to pump up our boys and send Charlie running for the hills. The structure is a pillared crown roast of Riefenstahlian bombast, derided by critics and unnecessarily cluttering space at the foot of the Washington Monument since its 2004 dedication. Perversely, considering its purpose, it is one of the most forgettable tourist stops on the Mall.
Until the government shutdown! When veterans from the Honor Flight program staged their own Occupy movement inside the cordoned-off plaza, their noncompliance quickly became a cause célèbre in the national press. (Why cover the sick kids getting locked out of their government-funded treatment, after all, when beckoned by the siren call of a Republican congressman’s photo op?) Over the weekend, quasi-celebrities Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck returned to the memorial with a trash-pickin’, Confederate-flag-wavin’ cast of thousands (except there was no trash to pick up).
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In that vein, we at The New Republic have noticed that some of the most destructive and extraneous functions of government, like the great concrete divot on 17th and Independence, have somehow avoided the long, skeletal arm of the shutdown. For your consideration, here's a host of programs and departments the American people would be better off without. As you read, think of how we could supplement our brave representatives’ salaries with the savings!
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The National Security Agency
Sure, it may seem like overkill to pick on the spooks. Ever since the summer’s PRISM revelations, even their staunchest supporters in Congress have begun to see the wisdom in maybe limiting the ease with which our intelligence analysts spy on their spouses.
The truth is, we should have always had reservations about NSA. They’ve been bombing rebel encampments, jacking up oil prices, and clubbing baby seals virtually their entire existence. Matt Damon was on to them way back in the nineties:
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http://www.newrepublic.com/article/115195/government-shutdown-2013-6-more-things-shut-down
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