Today I will actually act as if I’m on vacation. Today I won’t try to understand why people think Bush is good. Today I will not listen to news reports that talk about Bush as if he were legally elected and has been a great war time president.
Yesterday I began to understand that the further you get from New York the more abstract 9/11 is too many people. They claim ownership of it but never felt the true immediate impact. They talk about Ground Zero as if it’s holy land.
It’s a hole in the ground that once held buildings where people worked, laughed, ate, and complained about the wind. It was very windy. It’s sacred for the ashes intermingled in the hole and the construction. it’s just a construction site now.
I can’t stand Ground Zero being used as a rationale for war, and for no disrespect of the present administration allowed. I saw a program on CNN about Bush yesterday–I felt like it was a paid political ad. Grossed me out.
I’m a New Yorker on vacation and today I will begin to pretend that my vacation’s just another real vacation not planned to be out of town this week. Today I will honor Ground Zero by not thinking about it or New York or lives cut short almost three years ago.
Today I will be just another New Yorker in Southern California. I’m in a city that’s three to one Democrat. I will pretend that this is just another year and that a person’s politics doesn’t define him. I once voted for a Republican for president in a sick move and my friends still loved me though teased me for years. Now they have forgotten. I had to remind Big Luce. She laughed.
We’ve lived long enough to have gone through a cycle. When we were very young in the ’70’s, politics, hair, inhaling and age defined a person. Then, just a bit later, people were liked or disliked for their personalities and whatever else makes a person likable or not. My friends and I laughed at the New Age people as much as we laughed at compassionate conservatives. We accepted each group for the good they had to teach us. What we didn’t like we edited from our brains.
Now once again a person is defined by politics. That saddens me. All I ask if for New York not to be used by anyone for his own gains. New York’s not a symbol but a real place. I was born there. I used to think I would die there. Maybe I will; maybe I’ll move to a place like Santa Monica where the weather is better and the living (if you have money) easier.
Leaving New York has been a goal of mine forever. I keep on finding myself making new friends, getting more involved in the community, and most importantly being in certain children’s day-to-day life.
I understand New Yorker’s and they (usually) understand me. We share the same humor that doesn’t translate well on paper–ask a waiter if I can have a food to go. “No, you can only eat our food here.” Not funny on paper, truly funny in person. Stupid things like that.
Now I’ll begin my SoCal day. They don’t rush like I do. Hard to get used to.
