One of My Favorite Stories from My Travels

I was in Washington D.C. enjoying our country’s best historical treasures. It was a goal to visit the National Archives this trip. After spending the morning at the Smithsonian Art History and National Portrait Museum, we decided to try and get in to see our nation’s most prized documents. Since it is free to visit the National Archives, it is usually best to get there early, but I also found out that it is okay to get there late as well.

We arrived late in the afternoon and there was quite a long line outside the building. We had to wait for almost an hour to get into the building. Some of the exhibits were already closed for the day, but the room with The Constitution, Declaration of Independence, and Bill of Rights was still open. There was another line to get into this room. They let a large group of us into the room at once and there were crowds of people gathered around the most important documents. I decided to take my time and wait for the crowd to thin out. The benefit of getting there late, I realized, was that they stop letting people in the outside door an hour before the building closes, therefore, we were one of the last groups let into the document room. As the crowd thinned, I browsed around the circular room looking at the other documents housed in angled wooden cases and learned even more about our early history.

The crowd around The Constitution was still quite large and I was getting more and more excited to see it. I slowly worked my way to that wooden case that is about 3 feet deep, 6 feet long, and is a little higher than your waist. As I continued to test my patience and wait for my turn to look into the case, I heard the guards on either side of the case giving direction to those who were bending or testing the rules. For example, you cannot touch the glass, lean on the case, or put a child on your shoulders to see the case. There is a marble lip running around the case on the floor that acts as almost a step. The two guards on either side of The Constitution’s case were standing on these lips against the wall in the 3 foot break between The Constitution’s case and the Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights’ cases.

Feeling bolder than normal, I looked up at the guard and asked him if I could stand on the marble step in the 3x3 foot empty space near where he was standing. His response is why I am telling this story, he said, “It is your Constitution, you can stand anywhere you want to look at it.” So, I did and enjoyed viewing the document that gives me that very right, to stand where I want.

This struck me in so many ways and will be something I will remember forever. Often you go to museums or other tourist spots and there are so many rules that it makes it almost impossible to enjoy whatever it is. The rules that are set up around the National Archives are there to ensure that other people for generations to come can have the same experience I had of seeing these historical documents. It really impressed me that this guard truly understood his role, to protect The Constitution and other documents so that I can view it and appreciate it however it is reasonable to do so. It is because of that very document that I have the right to travel to my nation’s capital, visit the museums and monuments, and stand anywhere I want to enjoy them.

I will always think of this moment when I hear certain stories, like the controversy over saying, “home of the Sooners” instead of, “home of the brave” for our national anthem at OU sporting events. It’s my national anthem, right? Shouldn’t I be allowed to sing it however I want? Is it truly disrespectful to change the words to something that has more meaning to me? What if I sang it off key or to a different tune? Is Francis Scott Key going to arise from the grave, beat down my door, and tell me I’m doing it all wrong? Weren’t concepts like a National Anthem created for us to feel unified and patriotic not torn apart? It’s my national anthem, “I can stand anywhere I want to sing it.”