Thoughts About D.C.

People in Washington D.C. do not seem very happy. I don't understand why. They seem to work very strict 36-40 hours per week. It was amazing how the government buildings emptied precisely at 4:57 every evening. There is no litter on the sidewalks nor the streets; one has to search to find a cigarette butt in the seams of the sidewalk. For an entire week, noboday smiled and I didn't see anybody...male or female....who I would consider attractive. It seemed that everyone just moped around and existed. Is this because everyone habitating in the capital is embroiled in cynicism and sarcasm? There was a protest march on the mall while I was there, so it seems that there is activism; the cynics have not reached everyone yet. All the government workers were dressed exactly the same: black suits and gray ties for men, black or gray suits for women. It seems that style was significantly lacking in this city. People were "northern nice" in that they didn't smile or say hi but they didn't cuss you out either. So it was a bit strange after living in the South for several years now. D.C. is a southern/northern hybrid city as President Kennedy famously quipped about D.C. having all the efficiency of a southern city and all the charm of northern cities. I found this sarcasm quite applicable. The only ones who seemed to be happy were the tourists and the protestors. Of course this is just the description of the federal square. Venture outside the square and few communities like Georgetown exist. There seems to be a lot of poverty through much of the city and perhaps the grandeur of the federal square juxtaposed so closely with the poverty of most Washingtonians only exacerbates the seeming hypocrisy of a capital that is out of touch with the rest of the world. Is this why people in D.C. did not seem happy? Are they fatigued from participating in a space that obviously shows the disparity of wealth within a few miles. Do people who work in the federal square live in poorer parts of the city and so are always reminded of their poverty compared to the wealth of the nation? I don't know but something sure was making Washingtoninans less vibrant than what I expected.