Vandals, hearings, lawsuits, pro-algae protesters, historians, pool experts, style experts, and more have all been brought to bear over renovations that have occurred consistently for more almost a hundred years.
Sometimes, a seemingly minor situation, untethered from the broader sweep of history or human events, can be illustrative in a way great matters simply cannot, allowing us to see things clearly that might otherwise be obscured simply by their magnitude and complexity. It’s as if merely by virtue of being small, we can take something all in at once and see it clearly as a whole, finding the unvarnished truth. Under normal circumstances, renovations to various monuments and sights in a nation’s capitol leading up to the 250th anniversary of that same nation’s founding would not be controversial by any means. Structures, be they buildings, statues, open spaces, reflecting pools, fountains, or whatever, need to be repaired and maintained after all, and doing these repairs and maintenance prior to a summer that’s expected to see more tourism than usual for obvious reasons only makes sense. Don’t you want people taking the time to visit a historical landmark to see it in its most pristine form?
Sadly, everyone knows the situation today isn’t normal and so it is that President Donald Trump’s recent renovations to the Reflecting Pool, set between the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial have become yet another political flashpoint. First opened in 1922, the Reflecting Pool is the largest of its kind in Washington, DC, measuring 2,030 by 167 feet, and at between 18 and 30 inches deep, holds approximately 6.75 million gallons of water. Given the central location and pleasant, tree-lined atmosphere, the pool draws around 22 million visitors annually, making it a top attraction in the city. In addition to tourists, the Reflecting Pool has also been the location for various protests and celebrations over the years, starting as early as 1939, when singer Marian Anderson was denied permission to perform at Constitution Hall because she was black, only to draw a crowd of 75,000 people for an open air concert on Easter Sunday. The Reflecting Pool also hosted the March on Washington in August 1963, when Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his legendary “I have a dream speech,” and the March on the Pentagon four years later. In 2009, 400,000 people gathered there to celebrate President Barack Obama’s Inauguration. In 2013, it was the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington. In August 2020, it was the Commitment March: Get Your Knee Off Our Necks, and in 2021, it was a memorial to honor those who died during the coronavirus pandemic. The Reflecting Pool has also been featured prominently in popular culture, serving as locations for key scenes in Forrest Gump, Captain America: Winter Soldier, and more.
At the same time, the Reflecting Pool that was dedicated in 1922 isn’t the same as it is today. As early as 1929, a reinforced concrete slab foundation was installed and by the 1930s, drainage trenches were integrated along with elm walks beside the pool itself. As of 1978, the pool was being cleaned twice per year with 10 to 15 “large truckloads” of debris removed according to the National Park Service. In 1981, a full renovation was conducted to address leakage and drainage with the hope of making the cleaning process self-sustaining, but almost immediately after the system failed. Beginning in 2009, the entire structure was rebuilt as part of President Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Over the course of 18 months, the government spent $30.74 million to re-dig and re-side the pool itself, integrate a new water supply system that pulled from the Tidal Basin rather than city water, and pave new walking paths to the north and south. Unfortunately, almost immediately after the renovations, the Reflecting Pool became infected with algae and within a few weeks, needed to be completely drained and treated with an ozone disinfectant system. A year later, the pool was damaged as part of construction on the National World War II Memorial, and nine meters of the eastern end needed to be rebuilt, a project that took the better part of the year. In June 2017, it needed to be completely drained once again, this time because of a schistosome outbreak that infected snails and resulted in the deaths of some 80 ducks and ducklings.
Perhaps needless to say, none of these renovations, failed or otherwise, algae or infections, botched construction jobs, or subsequent drainings and refillings of the Reflecting Pool generated much news coverage or any controversy. Instead, they were widely viewed as necessary investments to update an aging structure for the modern era, but for some reason – in this case the obvious one – that all changed when President Trump got involved and insisted that the Reflecting Pool needed to be repaired once again to celebrate America’s 250th birthday. On April 23, the President announced that he planned to drain, clean, paint, and reseal the pool in “American flag blue,” describing the water at the time as “dark and disgusting” and what we can rightly describe as all hell broke loose. Practically from the moment the project was announced, critics and their allies in the mainstream media began complaining about everything and anything, from the choice of color to the process, complete with a lawsuit to prevent the project from continuing at all. In May, even CNN noted that “As Trump is charging forward with overhauling the Reflecting Pool, controversy and derision have intensified, bringing a lawsuit that threatens to stop the project mid-paint job, potentially leaving the 2,800-foot pool on the National Mall only partially painted in the blue color he chose” while citing “historians” criticizing the color. “For historians,” they claimed, “the new blue paint is more than just a bold aesthetic choice they are simply not fond of — many view the move as Trump painting over history.” “It’s not supposed to look like you’re going to dive in and swim; it is intended to reflect the great geometry of the classical temple that is the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument,” said Judy Scott Feldman, of the National Mall Coalition, a nonprofit that helps protect the area’s legacy. “It wasn’t intended as a place that looks jolly like your local golf course,” she added. “The intention is to create both beauty but also to symbolically link the father of the country with the preserver of the country.”
They continued to cite Charles Birnbaum, head of the non-profit Cultural Landscape Foundation that initiated the lawsuit to stop construction. After telling CNN that he was concerned visitors would miss out on seeing themselves in the water as “part of the commemorative landscape,” his lawyers claimed “Without immediate judicial intervention, defendants will deface an iconic American landmark, in open violation of Congressionally mandated procedures.” At that point, Congress felt the need to insert itself into the effort with Democrats not surprisingly opposed, asking what CNN described as “tough questions” about the process, though a court would ultimately rule in favor of the President. “My understanding is a no-bid contract is reserved for situations where delay would cause serious injury. What’s the injury with the Reflecting Pool?” Representative Joe Neguse, a Colorado Democrat, asked Interior Secretary Doug Burgum during a hearing. When Secretary Burgum pointed out that the Reflecting Pool was just one of some 20 fountains and other artificial bodies of water that needed repair throughout the city, Representative Neguse shot back, “That’s the serious injury to the government?” How about the American people who pay trillions in taxes, but cannot enjoy our nation’s national treasures?
Though these sorts of criticisms continued throughout the construction period, they were nothing compared to what happened after the project was completed earlier this month and a few days later, some algae began to reappear. While Katie Martin, a spokesperson for the US Department of the Interior, claimed “What you are seeing is residual algae from the supply lines, which have been sitting dormant for eight weeks while construction has been taking place,” The Washington Post’s top story on June 18 was about the algae itself, despite the country still being in the midst of a conflict turned into a diplomatic slog with Iran and experiencing renewed inflationary pressures, along with the usual challenges. Incredibly, the Post secured the services of a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Virginia’s Department of Environmental Sciences to analyze “light-reflectance data from a European satellite called Sentinel-2. The satellite captures clear images of the Reflecting Pool several times a month, and the data it produces can be used to estimate the presence of chlorophyll-a, a pigment found in algae.” Previously, they’d engaged a “pool guy” as part of their style section to address the choice of color, who not surprisingly hated it, “blue is a color we associate with injury: Think of the mottled black and blue of a bruise. It is the color of authority and stereotypical masculinity; of depression, but also tranquility; of cleanliness; of cold; of winning first prize…Just because American Flag Blue looks good on a flag, it doesn’t mean it will necessarily look good slathered on a length of more than 2,000 feet, says Jill Morton, a professional color consultant.” “The context of a color is what matters,” she added. “That dark blue, if it is that dark, oh man, that’s going to look very, very dismal.”
If such a thing were possible, some got even more bizarre and brazen if not downright criminal. Beside the Lincoln Monument, a small number of protesters have gathered to proclaim themselves “Team Algae,” insisting the algae is only a recent problem caused by the President despite the history because he didn’t consult with “scientists.” Others have committed acts of vandalism at the site, including etching “86 47” – a reference either to ditching President Trump or killing him – on the lawn beside the pool and someone appears to have done so on the bottom of the new pool itself. After it appeared the paint began peeling off for an unknown reason, seven people were arrested on June 19 alone for getting in the pool itself to grab a piece. As a result, President Trump recently insisted, “Things are really looking good in our Nation’s Capital, and add to that the fact that when I became President, Crime was rampant, and now, Washington, D.C., is one of the Safest Cities anywhere in the United States,” he wrote on Truth Social. “However, we’ve had some real problems with Vandalism at the beautiful Reflecting Pool, which sits between The Washington Monument and The Lincoln Memorial. Just like three days ago, they destroyed the grass outside of the Pool, they’ve also done everything possible to hurt the inside surface that was just installed. No different than the chemicals that were used on the National Mall, they used something similar in the Reflecting Pool to try to destroy and demean our beautiful work,” he claimed.
At this point, we do not know why the paint has been peeling. It could be shoddy construction, but as someone who spent most of their youth swimming and diving, in and around pools practically since I could walk, they are painted all the time and it’s hard to believe the job could’ve been botched so badly. Whatever the case, one thing is clear: For decades, the Reflecting Pool has been upgraded and maintained by Presidents of both parties without any controversy, but that was before Trump Derangement Syndrome took over, prompting people we might like to think our otherwise sane to protest on behalf of algae and break the law while the media employs a phalanx of experts on what should at most be a peripheral story, if not a non story. This is pure Trump Derangement the simplicity and non-importance of the story in the grand scheme of things allows us to see it more clearly than ever.
Confessions of a Conservative Atheist 