“… the current White House”
Have you ever been to the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington DC in the good ol’ US of A? Over twelve decades have come and gone since President Theodore Roosevelt gave us the name of “white house” to the building.1 As the wh.gov suggests it’s also been known as by other names such as the “President’s Palace,” the “President’s House,” and the “Executive Mansion.”
Turns out the origin of the name comes from the adopted nickname, the ‘White House’. Would it been the ‘Pink House’ if the paint had been pink? Hardly a reason to name a building because of its paint color, yes?. Our four children all have very specific names based on the meaning of their respective names.
People, places, and things change over time, so too can a name. Women, mostly, in our culture, will take the last name of their newly married spouse, while keeping, or not, keeping their maiden surname.
Let’s make one thing very clear at the outset, embracing and giving a green-light to a changed name, realize there is no need to think we would change the existing exterior color, white, of the current White House.
What would the changed name become?
What would the changed name become? The proposed name would be the “1 Green Home”. The reason for the selection of this name is what this zoetic message is all about, as we shall read. I think we can all agree that this President’s House is the primary residence and work at home office space for the executive leader of the constitutional republic. The occupant and family will move in an out every four or eight years, depending on the performance of the tenure, according to the voters of our land.
I would not be surprised to learn if the current resident president, being a practicing Roman Catholic, hasn’t requested an exorcism of the palace due to an excessive amount of vile evil speak that took place immediately prior to his arrival. If you have some inside knowledge that this purification has been performed please do not hesitate to let us all know.
Let us begin with ‘1 Green’ and why the number 1 and the word Green, the first part of the proposed name change, is appropriate to renaming this building.
1 obviously implies the first, as in the First Lady, the First Gentleman or as in this case the First Home.
1 differentiates one person, the President, from 9 Supreme Court Justices, 50 US Senators, 435 US Representatives, the latter conducting affairs in the ‘People’s House’, all in the mix of our representative democracy.
1 as in the adopted pledge of Allegiance, “One Nation Under God”2
An United States of Oneness is altruistically promoted with the name change
Green is the color of lawn grass, green is found in the evergreen tree, and many varieties of green deciduous trees, during their photosynthesis periods of the year.
Green implies a natural phenomena from which flow the Natural Order of life.
Greeness is representative of the land, yes, one could even say of the “homeland”.
Green lands are global in reach, unless of course you’re in a Nevada desert or high on a mountaintop in Washington state.
Calling the house green references a popular policy agenda, partially established, now being enacted, called ‘the green new deal’.
The Federal Government has issued the Green New Deal resolution:3
(A) to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions through a fair and just transition for all communities and workers;
(B) to create millions of good, high-wage jobs and ensure prosperity and economic security for ALL people of the United States;
(C) to invest in the infrastructure and industry of the United States to sustainably meet the challenges of the 21st century;
(D) to secure for all people of the US of A for generations to come—
(i) clean air and water;
(ii) climate and community resiliency;
(iii) healthy food;
(iv) access to nature; and
(v) a sustainable environment; and
(E) to promote justice and equity by stopping current, preventing future, and repairing historic oppression of indigenous peoples, communities of color, migrant communities, deindustrialized communities, depopulated rural communities, the poor, low-income workers, women, the elderly, the unhoused, people with disabilities, and youth … ;
… July 4, 1776?
Moving on to the ‘Home’ portion of the changed name. Let us review the name Home. Just like in the most recent previous zoetic message, “A Happy Place“ we noted the difference between a Building and an Architecture. So to with house and home.
“House” is to the word “Building” as “Home” is to the word “Architecture” (with a capital A).
A house is a house and remains a structure, a home is more than a structure, it also provides a sanctuary to the inhabitants.
A national first Home suggest strongly, a secure sustaining, sensible lifestyle free from foreign and domestic interference.
Reparations are required to make this Home green, and a work of Architecture. Why? Who built the original White House?
a well-known fact it was slave labor who built the house. How can we possibly call it ‘home’ or a piece of architecture, if by its very foundations were built with labor antithetical to the declaration of Independence, that was stated so in the very first document of the country’s inception on July 4, 1776?
Facts:
At 55,000 square feet with six-floor White House.
There are 132 rooms, 35 bathrooms, and 6 levels in the Residence. There are also 412 doors, 147 windows, 28 fireplaces, 8 staircases, and 3 elevators.
The White House kitchen is able to serve dinner to as many as 140 guests and hors d’oeuvres to more than 1,000 - plus visitors
The White House requires 570 gallons of white paint to cover its outside surface every five years, on average.
The original Architect was designed and built by an Irish-born architect, James Hoban, in the 1790s and also after it burned down in 1814. Mr. Hoban was a slave owner.
As such:
Enslaved people worked as axemen, stone cutters, carpenters, brick makers, sawyers, and laborers throughout each stage of construction from 1792 through 1800. As Mrs. Obama highlighted, the use of enslaved labor to build one of the most revered symbols of American democracy, and the home of the President of the United States, represents the paradoxical relationship between the institution of slavery and the ideals of freedom and liberty enshrined in America’s founding documents.4
I have Visited Washington DC on day trips more than a dozen times in the last 10 years. On two of these occasions I travelled to participate in non-violent protests. In both cases after the orators had given remarks, the swarm of people marched by the White House. The first was NoKXL expressions and the full speeches and march experience. It also included on the road uncomfortable bus seat rides, there and back.
Here is a portion of an email I wrote February 18, 2013:
So sorry I missed your Friday afternoon email.....
Have just returned early this AM from Washington DC with 50K + other to stop mad men of the KXL and fossil (DEAD) fuel industry destroying the planet.
There were five chartered buses from various cities in OH that went the round trip in a little over 24 hours to DC & back.
Our bus captain shared 150 buses from 30 separate states went to DC yesterday.5
The next demonstration trip occurred for the Women's March on Washington on Saturday, January 21, 2017 in Washington, DC
• Hundreds of thousands of women gathered in Washington on Saturday in a kind of counterinauguration after President Trump took office on Friday. A range of speakers and performers cutting across generational lines rallied near the Capitol before marchers made their way toward the White House.6
”… friends, foes, or family”
How would it affect us collectively to change the arbitrary White House name with a more national homebuilding applicable ‘1 Green Home’ understanding?
As individuals some often desire change in our lives. It is said we revamp our outlooks on a seven-year cycle, it’s very possible. What we seek is an inner transformation that manifest itself outwardly, in our personal relationships with others, be they friends, foes, or family.
1 Green Home
As a citizen’s collective we ought to plan our own national healing with a central focus using the executive’s abode as metaphorical form on our inner national character. The process of selecting a fresh descriptor for this house is akin to a Metanoia.
This act of converting our commonly shared heritage is brave by changing our state of being and by the prominent and profound renaming of the decisive place. This place is where words and executive orders echo throughout the entire world with sufficient authority to change minds and hearts.
Functionally the US of A is need of a change today. As I heard, many decades ago, and certainly believe today, there is an interconnectedness of all life and life forms.
Our wrong choices can be changed, in a spiritual sense, to an uplifting righteousness sought privately and publicly, individualistically and communally. Changing our voices, sometimes clashing viewpoints, will soothe the hurts of our country’s soul.
As the Jewish Psalm suggests, “When you sent fourth your spirit, they are created; and you renew the face of the ground.7 When will this movement begin for us to create a different namesake and unveil, “1 Green Home”?
Now!
Let us set the date of July 4, 2022, and each subsequent annual date until we all can abide by this a change of attitude, heavily imbued with our emotions. Thus our viewpoints from those of indifference, incredulity, or hostility, will become instead, common place on common ground for the common good.
A Zoetic Message
Corporate and personal names are stamped on parks, stadiums, arenas and buildings everyday. The White House should live up to to an energized namesake, “one green home”. Amends made for all the wrongs of the past, for the unharmed survival of the present time, with the hope of the promised future. 1 Green Home will fulfill the founding ideas it, the US of A, has always meant to represent, for an entire homeland and as shining beacon of a safe home for the entire world to emulate. It will become a piece of Architecture in the cosmic everlasting fabric of conscientious thought.
Shall an elevated status by a renowned and renamed building, graduate to a true piece of Architecture, not only to act for the advocacy of its policies, but also for the education of the population.
One can and should surmise the transformative event will produce its own identifiable hashtag:
#1GreenHome
Let us change!
https://www.whitehousehistory.org/questions/how-did-the-white-house-get-its-name
https://www.congress.gov/congressional-report/107th-congress/house-report/659
116th CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. RES. 109 February 2019 Full Resolution https://www.congress.gov/116/bills/hres109/BILLS-116hres109ih.pdf
https://www.whitehousehistory.org/building-the-white-house
Author’s email: Michael Scarmack, architect fractivist, Greenfield Township, #NoKXL
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/21/us/womens-march.html
Psalm 104:30 Christian Old Testament
"Would it been the ‘Pink House’ if the paint had been pink?" When I read this, I immediately thought of Big Pink, where The Band recorded their first album in 1968. Showing my age, I know. :(
I suppose I'm a bit cynical, but when I think of "Green House" my mind quickly turns to currency rather than the ecosystem. You see, Michael, I call myself "politically homeless" for a reason ... I find very little trust in those who occupy the halls of power in D.C.
That said, I appreciate and applaud your reference to the White House being built on the backs of slaves. I remember a scene from the John Adams HBO series where the newly elected 2nd president and first lady Abigail first visit their new home. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0PE_kC-3EY
Pretty dramatic.
Anyway, thank you for your thought-provoking insights. I look forward to your next entry. -- Jim