Congressional architecture

I like nice architecture as -- probably much more than -- the next person. But every time I visit the Hill, I'm saddened by how beautiful and stately the buildings there are. Working for Congress ought to be less glorious. As Kerry Howley once said, it would be a better country if the new administrator of our public goods jurisdiction were ushered into office with all the fanfare of a shift change at Target. The same principle also ought to apply to the grandiosity of our legislative branch's working environment. And I am always weirdly torn by how I want to like the Hill's loveliness, even though I cannot.

I feel much the same way when I see tour buses full of middle school kids walking around D.C. Not because there are always about fifty twelve-year-olds at Subway when I'm trying to get a sandwich and then leave -- although there always are -- but because our country would be better if schools took them to, say, the Google headquarters and tried to get them excited about actually productive endeavors instead.