A New York Moment

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				THE
Column Archive				VIRGINIA GAZETTE
				WILLIAMSBURG, VIRGINIA
A New York Moment				September 19, 2001

Most people have a love/hate relationship with New York. I know I do. It’s a city both exasperating and enthralling, fearfully noisy to the outsider, alive and vibrant for those who live or have lived there. I was one of the latter.

Though I was born in northern New Jersey, I, as a young man, had no trouble reaching the city via the Lackawanna commuter trains (now New Jersey Transit) to Hoboken. From there it was a short trip on the ferry to Barclay St. or 23^rd St. Or one could take the tubes (now PATH), as we used to call them, from the station in Hoboken to 9^th St. in New York. There lay Greenwich Village, with all its bookstores, bistros, small theaters, cafes and quaint houses. On the edge of the Village sat New York University, where I would complete my graduate work in Classics. Unlike the campus of William and Mary and the rusticity associated with it, New York University boasted the whole city as its campus, and indeed its buildings sprawled over several city streets. Nearby were the ubiquitous coffee houses, where poetry was read and the social revolutions of the 60s were fomented. Not far uptown were the Broadway theaters, then featuring some of the last plays of Tennessee Williams and Eugene O’Neill, both favorites with the 60s generation. Close too was the old Metropolitan Opera House, which soon became my second home. In the opposite direction lay Battery Park and the East River, then quite undeveloped, but now a vital appendage to Wall St. and the financial district. It was here that the towers of the World Trade Center would rise and give one a vista of the city unknown to us who, in those days, relied on the Empire State Building for such views.

For those of us who have left New York, the city is, of course, a state of mind which we can never quite shake. I can still recall most of the subway stations from Brooklyn to the Bronx and bring back a host of memories of the events and people associated with each stop - from Canal St. to Broadway, Times Square and beyond. But most of all it is the cultural and educational opportunities the city gave me for which I shall be eternally grateful. In those days, we who lived there took most of these things for granted, but once one is removed from the environs of the city and all it has to offer, he soon realizes what a vacuum most of the rest of the world is compared to cultural vitality of New York.

Understandably, New Yorkers are generally characterized as brusque and uncaring by those who can’t quite comprehend their mode of life. Yet, as events of the last few days have shown, nothing could be farther from the truth. Despite its massiveness and the plethora of nationalities within its borders, the cohesiveness of its very soul becomes apparent when disaster strikes. Indeed there is no clearer evidence of this than those striking photos we’ve all been seeing, depicting the gallantry of firefighters, police, doctors and just plain citizens who have put their lives in jeopardy to rescue and save their fellow New Yorkers. To all of them we shall be forever indebted.

For all of us, whether we have lived in the city or not, there has been, in recent days, a good deal of soul searching. What should be obvious, however, is that, in the end, the outpouring of love for a great city in distress will overcome the hate that tried to destroy it. As Plato observed, the strength of hate appeals to the lowest element in the human soul. And if we owe anything to the good people of New York, it must be a pledge to eradicate from our society the worst type of hate, which is the hate that breeds fanaticism, religious or otherwise. Our country would be well served indeed, if we as a nation could reach that same plateau of unity and understanding that New York, for all its diversity, has in these last few days.