I go to the US Open religiously to support Venus and Serena Williams. I attend as many of their games as possible and I happily cheer them on from the cheap seats. I admire them because they have shown that a couple of girls from the ghetto can make it in what was once a fery white, country club sport. They also expand the idea of what a woman can be: beautiful and feminine but also big and strong and powerful.
Life isn't all black and white. People can't all be reduced to cultural stereotypes. You have only my words to know me by. You don't know who I am, or what I am, or what socio-economic bracket I inhabit, so don't assume that you do.
Would you like to discuss ideas? I would be happy to do that. If you want to hurl invective and nasty names at me, why don't you do it in a private message? I'm not responding in public to any more personal attacks, but I will discuss ideas.
I am worried about the ability of my city government to continue to provide services for it's citizens. (I could go on for pages and pages about the economic repercussions of 9/11 but I will spare you.) I am worried about deteriorating quality of life in a place I truly believe to be the greatest city on earth. I am worried that my job might evaporate as so many other jobs have during the past year. I am worried that I will end my life living on the street. Thses are all legitimate worries which I never had reason to consider before 9/11. I think all of us here in New York have discovered new wells of anxiety in the past year.
I want my city back whole again. I want the twin towers exactly as they were. I want us rise from the fireball of the September 11 like aphoenix bird and show the rest of the world that we can come back to life in the face of adversity. I want the economic base of downtown restored. I want the shop keepers and restauranteurs doing business, making money, effectively supporting their families and their communities, and yes, paying taxes so New York City can continue to pay it's teachers, firefighters and policement. Is that greed? Does that lack all compassion?
Shall we discuss the respirators and rain suits I bought and brought to the rescue workers in the days after the attack? Shall we discuss the hours I put in feeding the people at the mayors command center on 21st Street? Would you like to hear the story of my old boyfriend Steve who walked down the stairs from the South Tower and the hours my childhood best friend spent in Brooklyn with Steve's wife, mourning what they assumed to be his death? Shall we discuss the meeting I attended on September 10th on the 16th floor of the South Tower and the fate of the attorney I met with that day? Shall we discuss the feeling of death breathing down my shoulder, just a few steps behind me? Shall we discuss my best friend crying on my shoulder after he walked 60 blocks from Wall Street that afternoon, as we both fearfully eyed the Empire State Building a few blocks away and wondered where is pregnant wife was and what she was doing and if she was safe?
Life goes on even after a brief walk through the shadows.
My father died in an automobile accident years ago on a Memphis street. To me, the street where he died is "hallowed ground." I'm not asking the city of Memphis to block off the street and build a memorial for him. I honor his memory by going on with my life. He doesn't exist in the place where he died. He lexists in my memory and in my heart. I believe it is selfish of survivor families to want to turn the entire World Trade Center site into a park or to object to the restoration of transportation infrastructure. I have sympahy for their pain. I want to see an appropriate memorial built. I just don't want the infrastructure and the tax base of New York City be held hostage by that memorial. I think we honor the spirits of the dead best by going on with our lives in their absence. I think we serve the memory of 9/11 best by showing our enemies that we can't be cowed by their acts of terror.
It's a free country. Anyone has the right to disagree with me.
WreckWriter once bubbled...
Can you? How so? Based on your original statements you seem to be very much capitalistically oriented. Statements like and are not what I might expect from someone who can place themselves into "an approximation of the mindset of someone from a traditional culture". Sounds to me like the whinings of a person of "high society" trying to make themself feel better by acting like they believe in traditional ideas while going home at night to luxury.
Tom
