Walked down to Constitution Avenue during my lunch break. My office building is nestled between the L shaped walls of the IRS building. I get a great view of the Capitol down Pennsylvania, but unfortunately the IRS blocks our view of Const. Ave. So I went down the block to see how things looked.
The street is still relatively empty, with normal traffic, the normal groups of classroom kids on field trips in their brightly colored matching t-shirts. Metal barricades stand at attention the length of Constitution Avenue. A small assortment of people, early arrivers, sit in the grass and read, waiting for Reagan’s arrival. A group of school children crowd under the shade of a tree. It is hot today and hazy; the D.C. flag hangs every other light pole, flanked on both sides by a U.S. flag. A gentle breeze gives them a lazy wave.
I walked from 12th and Constitution down to 8th - passing the IRS building, the Justice Department, the long stretch of the Museum of Natural History on the other side of the road. I note the crowded line at the public entrance to Archives and turn back. On my return trip, I overhear a mother explaining taxes to her teenage son as they gaze up on the stony facade of the IRS.