The Washington Post - 20.10.2019

C4 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.SUNDAY, OCTOBER 20 , 2019

BY JASON NEURINGER

S

ummer is over, and fall is

here, which means the re-

turn of three things to

Montgomery County.

Pumpkin-spiced everything, traf-

fic congestion and a county gov-

ernment and state delegation

that are unwilling to solve our

traffic nightmare.

In a March 24 Local Opinions

essay, “Just build the bridge al-

ready,” I challenged the Mont-

gomery County Council to help

ease a major traffic headache in

our region by supporting the

construction of a second Potomac

River crossing. Since then, the

Montgomery County govern-

ment and its state delegation

have done nothing to improve

traffic and instead have wasted

precious time and taxpayer mon-

ey on imprudent issues.

Instead of alleviating traffic

and working to benefit the over-

whelming majority of Montgom-

ery County residents, they have,

instead, bungled future budget-

ing and financing for the county,

been outraged over alleged police

brutality and ranted against ordi-

nary citizens for voicing their real

concerns about the direction of

this county.

While all this was occurring,

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R)

and concerned leaders have

worked to alleviate another traf-

fic nightmare: Interstates 270

and 495. As a regular traveler on

I-270 and I-495, I could not be

more appreciative.

Since the spring, Hogan has

added lanes on the 270/495

merge, improved add and drop

lanes to 270 and made traffic

significantly better. Many of

these improvements were final-

ized ahead of schedule and were

seen even before the summer

break began. Their improve-

ments were noticeable. There is

still much work to do, but we are

on the right path. Perhaps, if the

Montgomery County govern-

ment and its state delegation

cooperated and worked for the

vast majority of Montgomery

County residents, solving the

traffic problem may be an achiev-

able goal.

I could write page after page

about how bad traffic in our

region is. Countless articles al-

ready explain how bad it is. Most

Montgomery County residents

know how bad it is, notably near

the American Legion Bridge and

I-270.

Instead, our county govern-

ment officials and elected repre-

sentatives and state delegation

are grossly indifferent to the

plight of the hardworking and

struggling residents of Mont-

gomery County. Instead, they lis-

ten to a vocal minority that is

opposed to not just reasonable

solutions but any solution. From

their criticism, it is clear both

these naysayers and this county

government don’t regularly trav-

el I-270 or I-495 and do not

understand just how bad it is.

But it’s not just those of us

sitting on I-270 or I-495 who

suffer when traffic is bad. Feeder

roads — Watkins Mill Road, Mon-

trose Road, Rockville Pike, Geor-

gia Avenue, River Road — are

unbearable at 8:30 in the morn-

ing because of backups on I-270

and I-495. Alleviating I-270 and

I-495 traffic congestion means

alleviating congestion on other

roads as well.

The naysayers are vocal. How-

ever, it is time the residents who

are frustrated with sitting in traf-

fic also have a voice. I am just a

dad who has precious little free

time, but I cannot sit idly by. I

have written about my frustra-

tion, and I have publicly spoken

about it as well. I encourage

others to do the same.

The county and our state del-

egation must know that most

residents support widening I-270

and I-495 and support a second

Potomac crossing. Let’s get a

county government that will

work for the benefit of Montgom-

ery County residents. Let’s build a

road to the future.

The writer is a longtime Montgomery

County resident.

I-270 and I-495 improvements are welcome to regular users

BY CHRIS BYRD

E

vents DC’s a nnouncement that it will

raze RFK Stadium by 2021 presents

it, with the National Park Service’s

cooperation, the opportunity to re-

move the memorial to late Washington

football team owner George Preston Mar-

shall (1896-1969) from the front of the

stadium.

Washingtonians should know this monu-

ment honors a man who exploited racial

divisions to build one of the National

Football League’s more prosperous fran-

chises. And he obdurately stood in the way

of necessary and welcome societal change

long after it was otherwise the universal

norm.

Before moving the franchise here from

Boston in 1937, Marshall regrettably

changed the team’s nickname from the

Braves to its current pejorative name. That

shameful decision haunts us still.

The relocation made our franchise the

only one then situated below the Mason-

Dixon line, and the owner determined to

make Washington the NFL’s team of the

South. A calculating businessman, he built a

regional TV network throughout the South

to broadcast the team’s games.

That scheme expanded the team’s fan

base considerably, engendering legions and

generations of fans in North Carolina, Vir-

ginia and Te nnessee. Even now, when you

travel deep into those states, you’re more

likely to see Washington jerseys than Cow-

boys or Panthers ones.

Marshall’s cultivation of a Southern fan

base also reflected his deep-seated segrega-

tionist views, which, many have forgotten,

were once embodied in the team’s fight

song. Fans have been accustomed to singing

“fight on for old D.C.,” but for a brief period,

the lyrics were “fight for old Dixie.” And

“Dixie” was played in tandem with the

national anthem before each game.

And Marshall famously refused to sign

African American players long after the rest

of the NFL embraced them. His obstinacy

prompted fabled Post sportswriter Shirley

Povich to comment the team’s colors were

“burgundy, gold and Caucasian.”

The NFL had employed African A merican

players Fritz Pollard and Bobby Marshall as

early as the 1920s. The league then banned

African Americans in 1933, b ut Kenny Wash-

ington’s signing by the Los Angeles Rams in

1946 conclusively integrated the league. By

1961, Washington was the only NFL team

without an African American player. And

numerous African Americans, who were by

then the majority of District residents,

boycotted the games.

Kennedy administration Interior Secre-

tary Stewart Udall forced the owner’s hand.

Either sign an African American, he insist-

ed, or the government would revoke D.C.

Stadium’s 30-year lease. Stymied, Marshall

relented. Holding the top pick in the 1962

draft, Marshall wanted to take Syracuse

running back Ernie Davis, universally con-

sidered that draft’s top pick. But “The

Elmira Express” f amously said, “I won’t p lay

for that SOB.” Which prompted the owner to

trade the rights to Davis to the Cleveland

Browns for future Hall of Famer Bobby

Mitchell.

Developing leukemia in the summer of

1962, Davis tragically died at 23 without

playing an NFL down, while Mitchell, as the

first African American to play here, is

happily and synonymously associated with

Washington football.

But justice was delayed and denied too

long. Once largely discredited, Marshall’s

views are sadly resurgent. By removing the

monument to the late owner, Events DC

could powerfully signal hatred and division

aren’t welcome here. That action could also

instruct the team’s current owner.

Refusing to replace the team’s offensive

name and make a change that will make our

city and society better, Daniel Snyder mim-

ics his predecessor. And his team’s perpetu-

ating ugly stereotypes about one group

merely emboldens some people to vilify

other groups.

If Events DC removed the tribute to

Marshall, it could show the team and us a

better way.

The writer is a native Washingtonian.

The Marshall

memorial at

RFK Stadium

should go, too

BY JOHN SEYMOUR

A

few minutes’ drive from my

home in Arlington lies the head-

quarters of the National Rifle

Association, the country’s most

powerful gun-rights advocacy and lob-

bying organization. Except for the bold

red NRA logo and the large Blue Lives

Matter flags at i ts entrance, the structure

is indistinguishable from a thousand

other office buildings orbiting the na-

tion’s capital. Within it, however, is the

popular National Firearms Museum dis-

playing more than 1,500 rare and histor-

ic weapons, many with stocks hand-

somely carved and metalworks finely

engraved, in polished mahogany cases.

To a non-collector, the guns, although

rare and valuable, tend to blend together

pretty quickly. The bulk of the museum,

however, purports to tell our nation’s

story through a series of galleries, ar-

ranged chronologically and labeled “The

Road to American Liberty,” “The Pros-

pering New Republic” and “Ever Vigi-

lant.” The exhibits, minimally explained,

are intended to show how firearms were

used during our nation’s history to se-

cure freedom and independence and

how they have been used since to protect

and maintain that freedom.

Despite the endlessly repeated equa-

tion of guns with liberty, history inexora-

bly exerts its pull. One weapon of partic-

ular interest to the guide on my recent

tour was a ceremonial Colt pistol, manu-

factured for President John F. Kennedy

and decorated with the presidential seal

and the serial number PT-109, the num-

ber of Kennedy’s PT boat. The guide did

not mention, however, that, as the cura-

tor’s notes reveal, “the president’s un-

timely death in November 1963 prevent-

ed this hand-gun from being presented.”

To many visitors interested more in

history than in guns as artifacts, the Colt

pistol seemed dangerously evocative of a

weapon not mentioned in the museum:

the Italian bolt-action rifle and scope

purchased by Lee Harvey Oswald for

$19.95 in response to an advertisement

in American Rifleman, the official publi-

cation of the NRA. On Nov. 22, 1963,

Oswald used that weapon to assassinate

Kennedy.

The museum also displays, in yet

another instance of astonishing lack of

self-awareness and historical tone-deaf-

ness, another ceremonial Colt pistol, this

one given to President Abraham Lincoln

by his Cabinet. While taking time to

describe the Lincoln pistol, the guide did

not mention the derringer used by John

Wilkes Booth to assassinate Lincoln, a

weapon now displayed in the Ford’s

Theatre National Historic Site adminis-

tered by the National Park Service. That

weapon and the bloodstained pillow

from Lincoln’s deathbed tell us more

about the complicated relationship be-

tween guns and liberty in our nation

than all those displayed in the NRA

museum.

Other exhibits display a similar myo-

pia and selective memory in their treat-

ment of U.S. history. The museum refer-

ences, in its gallery labeled “A Nation

Asunder,” t he “War Between the States,”

an aging Southern euphemism for the

Civil War. The exhibit highlights South

Carolina’s protestation that the war was

righteous because states need to defend

the “powers granted to them by the

Te nth Amendment of the Constitution”

to secure “a free and sovereign govern-

ment.” Slavery goes unmentioned. A

prominent photograph of Confederate

president Jefferson Davis, as the colonel

then commanding the 1st Mississippi

volunteers, might strike a particularly

jarring note for many local visitors. Ar-

lington County only recently managed,

after years of opposition by Republican

majorities in Richmond, to remove Da-

vis’s name from one of the county’s

major highways.

A massive display holding various

models of modern assault rifles —

“A merica’s Rifle” — as captioned by the

curators, exerts a powerful effect on the

viewer and reinforces the museum’s de-

piction of their owners as the true de-

scendants of the Founding Fathers, mod-

ern Minutemen. That e xhibit, too, seems

particularly graceless in light of the

weapon’s f requent use in mass shootings

today. The NRA’s museum however,

proudly proclaims the weapon to be the

“most popular rifle pattern in America,”

and the organization continues to op-

pose all state and federal legislation

seeking to curb its use. According to our

guide, however, another weapon is even

more popular with museum-goers — the

Smith & Wesson .44-caliber police re-

volver used by Clint Eastwood in the film

“Dirty Harry.” Both guns bolster the

museum’s narrative that weapons are

essential to secure individual agency

where institutions fail, when the social

contract is torn and only weapons can

make the playing field equal.

The ahistoric treatment of wars, the

lauding of guns as exemplars of freedom

and the enshrining of guns into popular

mass culture myths of manhood and

rugged individualism were grating and,

after a bit, wearisome. But they were

hardly surprising in an NRA museum.

But then I came to a gallery dubbed “For

the Fun of It” with a diorama labeled “A

Child’s Room” — a lovingly curated ex-

hibit of a young boy’s bedroom circa

1952. Within a softly lit, sepia-toned
      bedroom decorated with cowboy-
      themed flooring, wallpaper and bed-
      spread were scattered toys of my g enera-
      tion: a Slinky, a record player with 45s,
      paint-by-numbers sets, a Viewmaster
      and slides, a couple of Hardy Boys books,
      Davy Crockett’s coonskin cap. But the
      bedroom is also littered with a dozen or

more weapons, from shotguns to single-

shot rifles to air rifles and cap guns. The

room traps in amber the NRA’s world-

view: Guns are the birthrights of Ameri-

cans, markers of masculinity and as

ordinary, appropriate and common-

place for children as Lincoln Logs and

Erector Sets.

But children and guns are not so easily

paired now, if they ever were. Not in the

wake of Sandy Hook Elementary School

in Newtown, Conn., where, in the bath-

room in Lauren Rousseau’s classroom,

15 first-graders, hiding and huddling

from their assailant, were slaughtered.

Or the library at Columbine, where 10

students were shot dead. Or any Virginia

classroom, where students now shelter

during the quarterly active shooter drills

required by state law.

After Newtown and Parkland and Col-

umbine and Virginia Te ch, the diorama

cannot be characterized as merely taste-

less and tone-deaf and willfully blind; it’s

grotesque and shameless. Like a tableau

of lost innocence staged in an abattoir; it

furthers the NRA’s central myth: That

the answer to gun violence is more guns.

It also reveals the NRA’s central strategy

for achieving more universal gun owner-

ship: Normalize and promote firearms

through a toxic and counterfactual com-

bination of fearmongering, sentimental-

ities and manipulation of history.

The writer is a longtime Arlington resident.

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BY MARION GRAY-HOPKINS

M

y 19-year-old son, Gary Hop-

kins Jr., was killed by the

Prince George’s Police Depart-

ment nearly 20 years ago. I am

saddened that the same type of senseless

killings are still occurring with little or

no accountability and no transparency

from those we pay to protect and to

serve us. Systemic racism runs deep in

the veins of our police forces. How many

headlines can we afford to see?

The lack of accountability is just one

of the vehicles that drive the needless

killings of black and brown people. Last

month, Leonard Shand answered with

his life.

We must say his name: Leonard

Shand.

Te n officers with the Prince George’s

County, Mount Rainier and Hyattsville

police departments surrounded 49-

year-old Shand and shot and killed him

in front of college and high school

students, several of whom recorded the

killing.

The police said they spent about 30

minutes trying to contain Shand and

using “less than lethal force.” Their “less

than lethal force” strategy included

screaming at t he disoriented man, using

pepper spray and tasers and throwing a

flashbang grenade, all of which escalat-

ed the situation. The use of the flash-

bang grenade undoubtedly led to

Shand’s death. Who wouldn’t run from

an exploding flashbang grenade? As the

ACLU of Maryland said in a statement,

“The police created a more dangerous

situation, causing an armed man to run

towards them, and then used the inevi-

table result of their actions as the

justification to shoot him.”

Based on information provided at a

Prince George’s County Police Depart-

ment news conference, a health profes-

sional was not called to peacefully de-es-

calate the situation. Instead, officers

followed Shand with their guns pointed.

They shot multiple times while he lay

motionless on the ground. Officers not

only left numerous bullet holes in the

victim’s body but also holes in nearby

buildings.

In t he aftermath of Shand’s d eath, the

police department has tried to paint a

deceptive narrative by using selective

characterization of facts. This was exem-

plified when the PGPD Twitter account

chose to release photos of bloody knives

that the victim was alleged to have been

carrying instead of the vast footage that

the department claims to have of the

incident. Bystanders, however, took nu-

merous videos of what happened.

In the footage released, nobody was

seen to be stabbed. The blood on the

knives most likely came from Shand

after he had been shot multiple times.

These videos also show that far from

“charging” at them as police have al-

leged, Shand was fleeing the grenade

police had flung at him. This tactic of

dehumanizing the victim remains the

first line of defense by law enforcement,

which gets its narrative out first.

There is a clear pattern with Mary-

land law enforcement officers gunning

down black and brown people. The

officers’ official narrative, as the ACLU

of Maryland put it, “continues to paint

victims as threats while wiping their

hands clean of any wrongdoing.”

We r egularly see police officers peace-

fully arresting armed white mass shoot-

ers alive, including the shooters in El

Paso and at Emanuel AME Church in

Charleston, S.C. Ye t black people too

often do not survive police encounters

and are seen as more “dangerous” be-

cause of their skin color.

Systemic racism and unconscious

bias cannot be excuses for Maryland law

enforcement officers to kill black and

brown people with little or no account-

ability.

As Marylanders, we should demand

the truth. We cannot be silent. We

cannot afford another unjust killing,

another life taken like this.

The writer is president of the Coalition of

Concerned Mothers.

20 years after police killed my son, I see little accountability

‘A Child’s Room’ at the NRA

MICHAEL A. MCCOY FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

The NRA headquarters in Fairfax in August.

Local Opinions

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