ILMA Compoundings - February 2021 - 26

COUNSEL COMPOUND

The City I Love So Well
By Jeff Leiter

I

am writing this month's column
two days after the angry mob of
Trump supporters stormed Capitol
Hill and rampaged through the House
and Senate chambers, leading to the
deaths of five people. I originally had
intended to discuss how this month
starts my 40th year of representing
ILMA and its members, highlighting
some of the Association's legislative
and regulatory victories over these
four decades. However, the events we
all witnessed on Capitol Hill on Jan. 6
left me to process a range of emotions.
I have settled on sadness.
For someone who has been an
active participant in American politics
and in policymaking since coming
to Washington, D.C., as a college
freshman in the early 1970s, I have
had a front-row seat to many political
traumas. My first year of college was
the last of the big anti-war demonstrations from Vietnam. My fraternity big
brother was the first non-Watergate
" dirty trick " linked back to Richard
Nixon's reelection campaign. I know
well two of the investigative reporters
who broke the Monica Lewinsky story,
leading to Bill Clinton's eventual
impeachment. What I learned from
these and other experiences in Washington, D.C., including the Trump
supporters' breach of the Capitol
building, is that the ever-increasing
complexity of our citizenry and
politics makes it even harder to " do
good " for the public in this large and
pluralistic country.
As I think about it, my sadness
goes back to last May and the death
of George Floyd under the knee of a
Minneapolis police officer. Thousands
of people took to the streets in

26

FEBRUARY 2021

| COMPOUNDINGS | ILMA.ORG

Washington, D.C., and peacefully
marched through the downtown area
to protest Floyd's treatment by the
people who are supposed to protect
and serve. However, after nightfall,
the peaceful protesters were replaced
by arsonists, vandals and miscreants
intent on destruction, mayhem and
tearing down symbols of our country
and history. My office is four blocks
from the White House, and the area
since last June has looked like a war
zone, with boarded-up storefronts,
barriers and fencing around the
monuments in Lafayette and Farragut
Squares, and the on-and-off presence
of National Guard troops.
As I survey the streets of Washington, D.C., today and try to analyze
the events of Jan. 6, I recall the thousands of hours I have spent on Capitol
Hill. I worked part-time through

college for two congressmen and, over
the past 40 years, have traversed the
Capitol complex, communicating to
lawmakers and their staffs on a range
of issues. There have been many days
where I decided to walk the length
of the Mall from the Capitol instead
of riding a taxi or the subway back to
the office. Other times, I would take
a break and walk across Memorial
Bridge to Arlington Cemetery. Each
time, I was, and remain, in awe of the
grandeur and majesty of our capital
and Capitol. In many ways, I am
every day like that kid on his or her
first school trip to Washington, D.C.
Because the Capitol occupies a
special place in both our capital city
and the nation's psyche, it has not
been immune to protests and threats.
Soldiers encircled the Capitol after the
Continued on page 28
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