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That is, it made me understand something about humanity and history that I wanted to share.įor those who haven’t seen it, the Rubenstein Exhibit in the National Archives is designed to be a testament to the challenges of growing and securing rights and civil liberties for all American citizens. This exhibit really made me realize a few things about our country and the philosophy it is founded upon and has spread around the world. So, in I went, and I’m glad I took the time. It’s very apparent that it’s intended to be the first room you enter and spend time in, so much so, that it wasn’t at all clear where else someone might go in the building without having thought about it a little. Now, when I say it’s just across from the entrance, let me help you understand how centrally positioned it is: when you go in, you literally look straight into it. Not nearly as hard to find, just across from the security at the new entrance is an interesting exhibit-the David M. It stood out to me, in fact, that it was almost a little bit difficult to find my way into the room where the Declaration, Constitution, and Bill of Rights are kept.

The entrance now is tucked around on the other side of the building and enters into the floor below. As such, it was good to visit the National Archives to get to see the physical documents that framed those fundamentally liberal principles as we bridged the gap from philosophy to successful implementation.Īs I haven’t been to the National Archives since I was a child, I only very dimly remember this, but I’ve been told that it used to be that the entrance to the building was on the opposite side from where it is now, at the top of a long staircase that leads straight into the gallery containing the foundational documents of the United States. Say what you will about American Exceptionalism, the American implementation of liberalism has genuinely been exceptional, and where others have borrowed from it and sought to adapt it to their own contexts, those experiments have largely been successful as well.

So far, humanity’s great experiment with liberalism has mostly worked. They are the promises our nation was built upon and has always worked to live up to, and they have been a promise other nations can see, have looked to, and have learned from as they also build themselves throughout the liberal world.

In that room-in those documents-are contained the first and perhaps greatest attempt by humanity to put the philosophical tenets of liberalism into practice. While I was there, the room was absolutely full of children who excitedly ran from one exhibit to another while their exasperated teachers tried to corral them in the center of the circular room to talk to them. In that building, we house the original drafts of the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights, and not only was I happy to see them myself for the first time that I can clearly remember, I was happy to see a school tour trip there as well. Though I’m no history buff myself, that history was part of why I was so excited to get to take the trip and, while there, to set aside time to take a leisurely tour of the National Archives, which I haven’t had a chance to visit since I was a kid. It was great to see the nation’s capital again and to come into direct contact with so much of the history of the country. I recently had the good fortune to travel to Washington, D.C., for the first time in decades.