Jack Kingston: “with the Fourth of July having just passed, I wanted to reflect on some of the thoughts I had and shared with people in…”

“with the Fourth of July having just passed, I wanted to reflect on some of the thoughts I had and shared with people in Glynn, Wayne, and Pierce County, GA, this past week. I started out by saying, you know, one of the big thrills of Washington is to occasionally go up to the top of the dome, and when you do that it is kind of a special feeling. You duck into an unmarked and inconspicuous door, you climb up about a story, some spiral steps in an old roundhouse that used to contain some sort of a heating turbine, and then you go on an 1865 catwalk in between the skin of the new dome and the limestone of the old dome. You go up, round and round, for maybe 20 minutes on a set of steel concrete and cables, about 200 feet. Finally you get to the top, and on the top you see one of the best views of some of the most significant monuments in our country. You can see the Washington Monument, the reflecting pond, the Lincoln Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, Robert E. Lee's home, and hidden in the trees, you know, the Korean and the Vietnam Memorials are also there. Each one of these monuments contains a special chapter in American history, and if you look beyond these monuments, you can see a glimpse of America herself. On the Fourth of July we celebrate our Nation's birthday. It is fitting that we reflect on these monuments and the great souls that they immortalize.”