Less than two weeks after we launched We Love DC, I got an email message from a friend. Here is is in its entirety:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/146735?GT1=430012 – is it the dead ducks in the reflecting pool that makes you love DC so much? :)

I ground my teeth and opened the link, knowing pretty well what was going to be there – more kicking the Mall around and use of over-blown words like “disgrace.” I was not – well, yes, I was disapointed, but I wasn’t all surprised by what I found inside, though my friend got her geography a little wrong – the ducks in question were in what is a reflecting pool in front of Congress, but not what most of us would think of as the reflecting pool between Lincoln and the Washington Monument.

Be that as it may, I took it as a challenge and took an extended stroll around the Mall two weeks ago. It was sweaty work, but well worth it. Newsweek, WaPo, everyone else: you are correct, the Mall has problems and needs attention and it a bit threadbare in places. But you’re completely wrong.

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