Reaction to Articles in Graham's Washington

The first piece I read is titled "Washington" and was written by a tourist and writer named Simone de Beauvoir. In it she describes D.C. as a "provincial" city and says that "its ugliness is disconcerting." Needless to say, she did not take to D.C. - but I think she made a mistake. Washington isn't about its architecture or beauty, it is about its people and the encompassing and pervasive culture of government. Being a tourist, Simone probably did not experience the delicate and beautiful machinery of a working democracy. Russell Baker, however, captured this machinery in a piece about the natives of Washington. He described Washingtonians immersed in government and politics. In several passages, he described moments that showed the large population of government workers, and how all seemed to have participated, in a significant way or not, in forming the news of the day. To imagine an entire city working in tandem towards a shared goal of keeping the government alive and fueling our democracy is awe inspiring to me, even if Washington is, as Simone described it, ugly.