Washington

Bryn Athyn, just outside of Philadelphia. Sounds like Wales. Play a show in a club called The Point where one Mr Springsteen played on his way up. In fact the cover shot for the ‘songs’ box set was shot in the venue. That’s very cool. We move on to the Capitol, well, just outside, Vienna, Virginia.After the show we go on a tour of the sights of Washington D.C. I have seen them before. I first saw the ‘Whitehouse’ in 1985. I stood by the ‘Wall’, which commemorates those lives lost in Vietnam in 93 and I remember sobbing like a child in front of the thousands of names. Now, in the dark and slightly damp night air it feels eerie, but the lesson is still there. It’s all around me; the women’s Vietnam memorial, the new World War 2 memorial, the Korean memorial, and the Vietnam Vets who man the 24 hour kiosks, as if waiting for the ghosts of there comrades to come by for a coffee. And there is Mr Lincoln, looking down on it all. What would he have to say, and indeed Dr King, who`s words are embeded in the concrete on the very spot he gave them to us. All these great structures and buildings are illuminated at night, and in the distance Capital Hill. Only the home of the President is in darkness. Surrounded by Police and fences and barricades, you can get so close, but there is not much to see. The lights are out. By the time I return next, there will undoubtedly be another memorial, which will have the names of the thousand and more USA soldiers who have died in Iraq. We should indeed, never forget.