Photo Essay: A Walk Along the National Mall/Smithsonian Museum District in Reflection of the True Guardians of Democracy.

I walked around the National Mall, near the U.S. Capitol building and briefly visited the National Museum on African American History and Culture hours before a near government shutdown.

Less than 24 hours ago, the federal government was on the verge of shutting down, again. The shutdown was averted after the Senate voted to pass a stopgap bill that would extend pandemic-related federal funding through mid-February. Republican senators who have been staunchly in opposition to the Biden administration pushing vaccine mandates on private …