We Will Not Let Them Down

Independence Hall, Philadelphia.

On a Wednesday in late January, Lois and I didn't have anything to do at the same time. We thought there might be an anti-ICE demonstration in front of the Custom House at 2nd and Chestnut, so we hopped on a bus and rode across town.

The trip down Chestnut reminded me of the old days of Tuesdays with Toomey, when a small but intrepid crew would gather in front of the Custom House - a fortress guarded by heavily armed federales - and called on Senator Toomey to repent and do penance for his many sins. This went on weekly for years, and at some point we became a popular venue for politicians and activists to come and speak. John Fetterman came, as I recall, several times. I liked him. Back then.

At any rate, nothing was going on at the Custom House, so we found ourselves walking over to the Visitor Center on Independence Mall. Initially the idea was simply to get warm, but then we thought maybe we'd try for the Liberty Bell. The lady behind the desk was very happy to see us. It was a slow day, and both the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall were available right then. This is not what it's like in the summer.

So we walked across the street to the Liberty Bell pavilion, and as we walked past the explanatory panels that led to the bell, we wondered what kind of rewrite the fascists would come up with. Surely Martin Luther King would have to go.

When we came to the bell I reminded Lois about Bob Llewellyn, a photographer I worked with on several picture books. When Bob and I had showed up at the bell, Bob did what he usually did - look for something new to say. Eventually he stepped over the rope line and lay down under the bell. This was okay because I had secured a photo permit, and we even had a minder who ran interference with the guards. 

Bob lying under the bell didn't work, but then he had another idea, and I wound up under the bell holding a light that sprayed photons out through the bell's crack. Not actually a great picture, but the symbolism was fabulous.

Lois and I loitered for a few moments, just spending some time with the bell, and then we moved on, crossing Chestnut street. And going into a tent next to Independence Hall, which naturally contained metal detectors. We passed security with flying colors for the second time that day (the Liberty Bell pavilion also has metal detectors) and then sidled out through another set of tent flaps into the park behind Independence Hall. Here there were benches, where we waited for a few minutes along with about a dozen other tourists. It was quite windy, and a number of tarpaulins were making snapping sounds in the wind.

The sound put me in mind of going sailing on a windy day. I mentioned to one of the park rangers that it was the kind of day that a sailor had to be careful not to lose a spinnaker. She asked me what a spinnaker was. I told her it was a big and rather unwieldy sail that you most effectively deployed when the wind was directly behind you, and that a sudden gust from an unusual angle on a windy day could rip the spinnaker right off the sailboat and send it flying over the water. Then you needed to go chase it and bring it home and get it ready for the next time.

The ranger liked the story and also turned out to be our guide. The tour group before us was just exiting through the rear door of Independence Hall, and so it was time for us to form up and go inside.

Neither Lois nor I had been inside the hall for a long time, but we were quite familiar with the history, and I, for one, was prepared to be mildly bored. The guide surprised me, though, and sprinkled her story with a number of anecdotes that were new to me. And when she came to Benjamin Franklin's comment about "a republic, if you can keep it," I found the old anecdote unexpectedly moving, and I understood why we had come to this place on this day.

Afterwards Lois asked the guide if all the guides gave the same presentation, and she said all the guides prepared their own presentations, and we could come back tomorrow, have a different guide, and have a very different experience.

Lois then asked the guide if she and her colleagues were concerned that the new administration might provide them with a required script. She smiled and said, "We're taking it one day at a time."

See also Second and Chestnut, Citizens of the Planet, Syria and Queen Anne's War, W. Only Second Worst.