Sunday afternoon tour of Washington, DC
By David Bassett
Following the close of the Conference, and lunch at Catholic University, a sizable number of Conference attendees boarded a tour bus, and met our wonderful tour guide, Hopi Aurbach (whose participation with us had been arranged by Steve Kretzmann), who grew up in the Washington area, and has an activist background, knew of and was sympathetic to our organizations and efforts. The combination of her background, and knowledge made for a tour that was instructive and enjoyable for those familiar with Washington, and those visiting here for the first time.
On a sunny and comfortable July afternoon, we first went to the offices of the National Campaign for a Peace Tax Fund/Peace Tax Foundation, located in the buildings of the Friends Meeting in Washington. We then made visits to famous national sites including the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, the Korean War Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, the Mall and the Reflecting Pool, looking eastward to the Washington Monument, the Vietnam War Memorial, and the statue honoring Albert Einstein. Our guide enlivened our tour with accounts of significant civil rights events which had occurred in some of these locations. We wondered if there would come a day when the Nation's Capitol would include a site remembering persons who were conscientiously opposed to war.