The More Things Change ...

... the more they stay the same.

Take the apparent gridlock in the halls of the Congress of the United States.  (Please!)

Then I ran across the following humorous "coat of arms" of the Senate Park Commission done by architect Alfred Morton Githens in 1902, and it helped me to realize that what's happening now in Washington isn't all that different from what's always happened in Washington.  It doesn't lessen my frustration at the modern situation, but it did make me laugh.  I hope that you can see the humor in it, too.  (Especially in the motto: Soc Et Tuum [or as we might spell it more like modern English and less like faux Latin, Sock It To 'Em].)

The central charge on the shield is, of course, the Washington Monument on the Mall.  And what is the Commission crest doing to that poor eagle?  Alas, my poor country!