New York, Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn,
are ancestral turf for me.
Very familiar.
I also did my university here, Columbia.
But NY does not feel like home.
It was once the center of the universe for me,
but has not felt that way for a long time.
It's where the family lives,
but I do not ever want to live here again.
Being closer to them would be great.
But not here.
Weather, for one. Too cold.
Real winter.
And brutally humid in summer.
No thanks.
We are all supposed to be thrilled with diversity.
But you know what I think of that scam.
As a white man, I am now a distinct minority
in a city where people like me were once the general rule.
Why should I be thrilled?
It's much easier to feel that you don't belong.
And I don't.
When I went to Holy Cross Cemetary in Brooklyn
back in the early 80's to visit the grave of my
father, grandfather and uncle,
I was made to know that I was not welcome
in that now very black part of the city.
And the size and speed of the place, especially after dark,
the rivers of people on the streets,
has a way of inducing a sense of loneliness in me.
Living here would certainly provoke depression.
One final complaint, since I'm in the mood.
An affectation of the local, often Jewish, philanthropic class.
Naming places after husband and wife
with their middle initials included:
The Robert S. and Sadie P. Rosenblaum Pavilion.
I want to go home.
____________________
3 comments:
DeYoung Museum
Ralph K. Davies Hospital
Langley/Porter Looney Bin
Phyllis Wattis Symphony Hall
This entry and the celebration of American Thanksgiving in general remind moi of my input into discussions about "Diversity" "otherness" "inclusiveness" and so forth when we lived in Annaplius, Maryland. The "liberal Left" (who don't deserve such noble names) enthuse about Diversity and Otherness and Difference, but complain of various real or fanciful qualities especially of Americans or the USA.
Thanks to James Madison et al, the liberal Left have the right to like what and whom they like and to dislike what and whom they like. But they refuse to be deem'd rejectors, condemners, haters, etc, not to mention dividers:
»No! We have only affirmation and celebration for otherness, differentness, diversity. How could anyone call us haters when what we hate most is hate itself! Ipso hence, we do not divide Christianity and America and the West (i.e., us) into good and evil, and affirm the first and revile or hate the second! Christianity and America arrive to us already divided into their true and invalid versions; the evil violent versions (e.g. misogynist American fundamentalism, homophobic conservative Anglicanism, greed-based economics) somehow enter true Christianity, true America etc violently, and even parasitically etc near the beginning and repeatedly along the way.
»When we reject evil versions of true America, true Christianity, we are affirmers of the Originals, not Platonists (evil false followers of Plato) or essential dualists. It's the evil who enter the picture and introduce divisiveness and division and dividedness! Not that anyone should call us repristinators -- that's a no-no, we agree.
»Anyway, the main thing is, we celebrate diversity and otherness, especially when we affirm stuff that's outside Christianity and America and the West to critique Christianity and America and us when we fail to live up to true Christianity and true America and so on. If celebrating true Christianity or true America upsets Leftists who want to declare that original or true Christianity (e.g. the Crusades, witch trials, anti-Darwinism) and original or true America (slavery and capitalism) and the original or true West (nihilism) are evil from the beginning, we will listen patiently to this critique as long as critics emphasize that we're good people.«
Nicely put.
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