Letter to the Editor: Unsafe in D.C.?

Editor:

As one who’s often visited D.C. since the early 1960s, I have never felt unsafe.

While serving in the 82^nd Airborne Division, I spent a three-day pass in 1961 in D.C. while bunking at the Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, and Airman’s Club, and had no feelings of being unsafe.

In August 1965, the Capitol police arrested 250 of us as we tried to deliver our “Declaration of Peace with the People of Vietnam” to our congressional representatives. I did not feel unsafe. (For my civil disobedience on the Capitol grounds, I spent three days in the D.C. jail along with pacifist Dave Dellinger, civil rights leader Bob Moses, and teacher Staughton Lynd.)

In May 1971, the D.C. police were a bit rougher as they arrested 13,000 of us during the May Day demonstrations against the war, but again, I did not feel unsafe. (When tried for obstructing a sidewalk, I was found not guilty and 10 years later, received a $10,000 check from the City of Washington to acknowledge my false arrest.)

I picketed LBJ’s White House with Students for a Democratic Society in April 1965 and protested both of Richard Nixon’s inaugurations in 1969 and 1973; at no time did I feel unsafe.

Protests and arrests aside, I’ve safely traveled on D.C. Metro and city buses and visited in utter safety the Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam and Korean war memorials, memorials to MLK Jr., FDR, T. Jefferson, and Mohandas Gandhi, the National Portrait Gallery, the National Gallery of Art, the Smithsonian Institution, the Air and Space Museum, Kennedy Center, Roosevelt Island, the Japanese cherry trees in bloom, the Supreme Court, the National Arboretum, the C&O Canal towpath through Georgetown, Washington monument, Lafayette Park, Dupont and Logan circles, the D.C. Zoo, many restaurants, bars, and eateries, and a spring-time kite-flying extravaganza on the Mall as well as walking, bicycling, and jogging there.

Not once, not for one single moment, in fact not ever—not even while arrested, tried, and incarcerated—did I ever feel unsafe in D.C. Not once was I mugged or robbed. Not once was I threatened in any fashion. I sincerely hope that the various National Guard units feel as safe as I have always felt during their present visit in D.C.

However, I must say that having convicted felon Donald J. Trump as our president along with his MAGA cronies makes me feel unsafe; very, very unsafe.

Yours,

/S/ GRENVILLE B. WHITMAN