Saying Goodbye to a Friend

With one week remaining in this D.C. adventure, I find myself transformed into a freakish hybrid of a person. I am stuck somewhere in the twilight zone of part tourist, part wonk. One minute I am spewing commonplace D.C. vernacular like, “Oh, they got thrown under the bus”, or “without getting into the weeds” or the ever popular “we should check with OGC due to the OIG and GAO.” However, the next moment I am pulling out my on-the-ready camera to snap a shot overlooking the Lincoln Memorial – even though I drive by it each and every day.

It’s true what they say about this city. It gets into your blood. My previous stereotypes of corruption, cronyism, and bitter partisanship are muted. Not that Washington or its people are perfect, but the idea of our democratic government and the commitment to equality and freedom is apparent in everything I see and do.

Now by virtue of the fact that I chose to work in politics, it may come as no surprise that I was always a patriotic kid. I would lead mock parades down the driveway with my brothers – me riding my red, white and blue expertly decorated bike and sporting an American flag. (My poor parents had to play audience to many excruciating orchestrated events as the parade was likely followed by a hay mow harmonica concert.) I seem to also recall giving a patriotic Daughters of the American Revolution speech at a Horicon Rotary Club event in grade school. To this day, I still tear up during the Star Spangled Banner.

Then I suppose it also wouldn’t surprise you to hear that this week I had difficulty walking dry-eyed down the National Mall from the White House for likely the last time. I had just completed a meeting inside the White House executive office building with the President’s disability policy advisor as we shared a conversation about postsecondary outcomes for students with disabilities. We talked about, you might have guessed, the GAO, the HEOA, the WIA. And we “got into the weeds” about the need for better alignment with ESEA and IDEA.

After about an hour I passed through the three gates of security to depart from his office (returned my temporary “A” White House badge – just like they wear on the West Wing!) and was back out on the street with my camera. I could have taken the metro (we have become good friends, metro and me) but I decided to walk instead. So I strolled in my suit and heels past the front of the White House, overlooking the Washington Monument, stopping to read the FBI seal on the J. Edgar Hoover building. I passed sweaty, chattering tourists and they likely didn’t know what to make of me – an obviously local working woman, taking pictures of the inscription on the Department of Justice and wiping her eyes.

I will clearly miss this city. My friends here are Commissioners, Chiefs of Staff, Deputy Assistants and Advisors. They are important people in this government and they are committed, not to the process, but to the product.

I am in awe of the work I have witnessed. And I remain fascinated with this Capital and its stature and statues. I could walk down the Mall a thousand times and never get tired of seeing Abe’s face.

So as I pack my boxes this week, I do so in conflict. I am one half Washingtonian (don’t speculate on which half) – but clearly a piece of my heart belongs to D.C. I will be back, my friend.

Lisa Pugh is the 2009 Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation Public Policy Fellow. She will work on disability policy for the House Committee on Education and Labor during the 111th Congress and in the Office of the Under Secretary in the Department of Education. She is being sponsored by The Arc Wisconsin. She will live for one year with her family in Washington, D.C. and return to her home in Madison, Wisconsin to share what she’s learned in June 2010.