Reflection

Mirrors tell it like it is. We look in them and we see mirror images of ourselves. It was often said that the camera never lies but surely that is more true of mirrors. They reflect back the truth.

It is the same with still water. You look upon the surface and see a mirror image of  the sky above. If birds or aeroplanes fly above the water you will see them too.

Back in 1922, in Washington D.C., a very large reflecting pool was completed between The Washington Monument and The Lincoln Memorial. I suppose its fundamental purpose was to reflect those two stone edifices - endowing them with even greater visual significance and drama.

It was there by that reflecting pool that The People's March on Washington terminated on August 28th, 1963 to listen to Martin Luther-King delivering his iconic "I have a dream" speech. A speech by a reflecting pool that reflected the state of civil rights in America at that time. Later that decade, anti-Vietnam war protesters in their thousands reflected upon a pointless war by that same reflecting pool.

You can see that the Washington reflecting pool is not just a place for literal reflection - like a bathroom mirror, it is also a place for a more figurative kind of reflection about the state of the nation, wars, civil rights and suchlike.

And so we arrived at April 2026. Probably on a whim, the current president of the USA decided that he would have the famous reflecting pool renovated ahead of Independence Day celebrations that would mark America's 250th birthday.

He wanted to see clear water and a bottom surface that might be described as "American blue".

The job was rushed and ill-considered. Contractors did not have to bid for the work. Instead they were simply appointed by the president - trashing normal protocols. It was a case of "jobs for the boys" with one of the lead contractors being one of the president's Mar-a-Lago neighbours down in Florida.

Almost as soon as the upgraded reflecting pool was reopened it began to deteriorate. Algae bloomed rapidly and the floor coating began to peel away. The failure of the hugely expensive project was absolutely down to bad and rushed workmanship . Of course it did not help that a presidential cavalcade  drove over the empty reflecting pool in May. This probably caused damage to the recent paintwork.

One thing is for sure - Olympian canoesist David Hearn did not cause any of the damage even though the current regime tried to nail him in the courts. Eventually the case was thrown out but it should never have been brought in the first place. The cruel vindictiveness shown towards Mr Hearn was terrible and I understand he has not received a word of apology from his accusers. They had no evidence whatsoever.

The reflecting pool that the current president sought to renovate remains murky and green with algae blooming. It's like the water in the nearby river basin which feeds it. And there is no sign of the American blue paint that the president was desperate to see. Nobody cut the new surface on the pool floor and there was no  sabotage. The embarrassing failure of the project was  down to pressure of time, an absence of proper professional advice and research, inappropriate materials and shoddy workmanship.

The reflecting pool accurately reflects America's current political malaise under the leadership of a reality TV host with an enormous ego. The story contains blatant lies, superficial yearnings, cruelty, unjustified accusations, lack of apology and an obsession with the appearance of things rather than fundamental truths.

The pool is like a poem with physical form. Stubbornly, it still mirrors what is going on.  They tried to make it clean and sparkling blue but instead its reflection remains unchanged and familiar as Abraham Lincoln's pinnacle looks down accusingly on the hideousness of the current government with its self-obsessed, lazy and terribly ignorant leader

from Yorkshire Pudding https://ift.tt/kYBcRXG