The beauty and lost experience of our Nation's Capitol

The riots and violence in Washington on Wednesday were unacceptable and appalling. The US has always been able to point to our peaceful transfer of power as a marker of the government's stability, and of our overarching unity as a nation.

My thoughts keep returning to a small matter, in the grand scheme of things. Having lived on Capitol Hill, only a block and a half from the East Front of the Capitol building for nine years, I know the Capitol's grounds well.

Walking to work in the Longworth building, going for a morning run, riding a bike to the Lincoln memorial and back, or going for a family walk -- seeing the Rotunda as part of that never failed to make an impression. It's beautiful, and I never forgot how lucky I was to be there.

After the terrorism on September 11, 2001, we lost part of that. One of our favorite things was simply to walk to the West Front, sit on the steps, and watch the sun as it set behind the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. Today you can't do that, because the Capitol Police closed off the West Front to foot traffic for security. Streets adjacent to the House and Senate office buildings were closed to vehicle traffic. The East Front was largely closed off for years as the Capitol Visitor's Center was constructed. This was done in response to both the 9/11 attacks and the 1998 shooting of two Capitol Police officers after an intruder forced his way through one of the entrances breached this past Wednesday. The Visitor's Center was intended to allow better control of who comes into the Capitol.

But the point is that we, the people, lost some access that we used to have in the pursuit of security.

In the years that followed, I had conversations with some of the Capitol Police, who shared that they constantly evaluated threats to the campus. One year, I heard that there was credible evidence of plans for RPG attacks using civilian vehicles on Independence and Constitution Avenues. Another summer, the Police were told of plausible threats from people carrying bombs in backpacks. As one remarked to me: "Everyone who comes here has a backpack. What are we supposed to do?" The year my daughter was born, there were credible threats of car bombs, so traffic was inspected before it could pass down Independence and Constitution. It made traffic really bad in the mornings, including the day of her birth, as we rushed to the hospital. Big thanks to the Capitol Police officers who helped out that day and called the ambulance. No way was I getting to the hospital in time during DC morning rush hour.

And one budget session in the 2000s, former-Capitol Police Chief and Senate Sergeant-At-Arms Terrance Gainer asked for funds and approval to build a fence around the campus. Wikipedia tells me that was rejected for cost reasons, but I remember Members of Congress telling him no because they didn't want to wall off "the People's House." (And we spent money hand over fist hardening the campus after 9/11).

The cynical point of view back then was that the request was made so it could be documented that the Police had asked, and were denied, in the case that something tragic occurred in later years. ("We told you we needed a fence to keep you safe. You told us we couldn't build it.")

And this past Wednesday, I said several times to family and friends that we will inevitably see more of the grounds closed off, and probably walled off, from visitors. We will lose more access to "the People's House." I must have given two or three hundred tours of that building to visitors “from the District” during my time as a staffer. I know it well, and love it. I wonder how that, too, will change. (And I’m sorry, to the true historians of the Capitol, for repeating some of those apocryphal stories about the building’s features that are apparently old wives’ tales. But they do make the tours more interesting for the guests!)

And all of this is sad, and depressing. Like I said above, it's small when compared to everything else connected to the events of January 6th. (For example - the Executive Branch sending a mob of people to disrupt the work of the co-equal Legislative Branch.) But I saw today a picture of a large, black (and for now, temporary) fence closing off the Capitol, and wished that I hadn't been right.