Lightning never strikes the same place twice. After it strikes (the first time), the place is no longer the same.
I've found this to be the case with my trip home to Ohio this week. You can go back, but you can't really go home. Overall, it's been a great trip, I've seen old friends, spent time with near and far family members, visited old haunts and explored new ones (Main Street Grill in North Canton shout-out! Best Salmon filet I've had in a long time).
But, some things just felt different this week. Well, more different than they have in the past. And then I realized, "Hey...The language is different." Or, if not the language, the discourse. And the code words...
Traveling Today
We decided last night to drive back to NYC today/this morning. We were going to hold off until tomorrow, but then we decided to sign a lease tomorrow, so we needed to be back to do that. I'll be checking in as best I can through the day, but I'm driving, and I can't anticipate internet access through most of that drive, so I will reply back to comments as quickly as I can.
Ohio
The reason we're driving back is because we took a week to spend with friends and family in that bellwether of bellwethers, Canton, OH, before the fall school season kicks up into high gear.
I love my hometown. I love that I grew up there. I love that I can go back there. I love my family and my neighborhood, I love the climate, the college towns that are really towns (as opposed to Morningside Heights, which is not really a college town), my friends, my favorite old hangouts, and the discovery of new ones. I love that I can go back home and reconnect.
One thing I discovered about my old hometown on this trip, though, is that political talk has become much more acceptable and face-forward than in trips past. And, ironically, more veiled and coded than before as well.
Most of this was fueled by the [insert your name of choice, I'm leaving this intentionally blank for the moment] construction on the Lower East Side (LES) of Manhattan. I'm sure as we all know, as soon as the decision came in against preserving the site as an historic landmark (the last procedural hurdle preventing the organizers from moving forward with the plan), that the talk radio poo really began to fly.
Welcome Opportunities
Soon after arriving in Ohio, though, I was asked about the [famous planned construction in something in NYC]. The person who asked was a good friend and relative, someone who spends his days working construction projects and listening to Neal Boortz. We've never much talked politics as he and Mrs.-him are more conservative than I am and unlikely to do anything but realize how unlikely we are to change each others' minds about who to vote for or which tax policy to pursue. So, while socially we have always been easy-breezy, politics and current events have always just been something that none of went out of our way to bring up. And then he asked. "What do you think of the [thing I've been told is a disrespectful slap in the face of a proud and strong nation just getting itself back on its feet again?]
This was a welcome opportunity.
My response, condensed here, went something like this:
- At first, not excited about it. Actually, really kind of against it. Just didn't feel right.
- Then, I learned it wasn't an actual mosque. And that it was modeled on the 92nd St. Y, one of my favorite institutions in the city, as an organization for outreach and education. And that kind of appealed to me.
- Then, Bloomberg's speech, and I quoted these parts (I liked it so much, they kind of stuck with me, after rereading it so many times):
We may not always agree with every one of our neighbors. That's life and it's part of living in such a diverse and dense city. But we also recognize that part of being a New Yorker is living with your neighbors in mutual respect and tolerance. It was exactly that spirit of openness and acceptance that was attacked on 9/11
and
...thousands of first responders heroically rushed to the scene and saved tens of thousands of lives. More than 400 of those first responders did not make it out alive. In rushing into those burning buildings, not one of them asked, "What God do you pray to?" "What beliefs do you hold?"
- The organizers first had to earn approval from the local community board, which it did overwhelmingly. The people who live in the neighborhood vetted it, and approved it. How can the opinion of someone in Washington DC, or California trump the opinion of the people most directly touched by 9/11? Why aren't other Americans trusting the local decision supporting construction?
- Oh, that's right, we've also been told they're not "real Americans."
- This whole thing reminds me a lot of the Terry Schiavo incident. A very local situation, flocked to by national figures and those seeking to fan flames for political gain and grandstanding, and then once the opportunity for opportunism faded, so did all of the peacockery and false concern. Why haven't we seen national legislation since Terry Schiavo addressing the issues raised in her case? I suspect the same thing will happen with this controversy. Whether it is built or not, 6 months from now, it will be a non-event accept in the rear-view mirror.
- I choose to trust the locals, and to go with the 1st Amendment in practice and not just in theory.
Bombastic Rhetoric or Innocent Query?
It seemed that everywhere I went, someone wanted to ask me what I thought about the [insert your preferred phrase of reference here] and whether or not it should be built at all, or that close to Ground Zero, or wouldn't it be better if it was outside the city? Then, someone at a large family gathering asked what it was like to live in New York City.
Now, this was a welcome question. Something I can speak on from experience, as I was first a tourist (3 times) before becoming a resident (4+ years now) and somewhat understand what it is to be both, and how they're different. And, for a little time, to be relatively free of the tricky political jujitsu of debating the merits and demerits of building [whatever-you-choose-to-call-it] so close to Hallowed Ground was welcome, indeed.
Then I realized I was in it deeper and stickier than I had been all week. Part of my response was to be that how things are discussed inside New York are different from the way they are discussed outside of New York. For example, the [uh-oh. Now what do I do? I have to give it a name. I have to call it something. I have to define what it means and thereby give myself away.]
If I chose to say, "Community Center," I associate myself with one side of the debate. If I say, "Ground Zero Mosque" then I clearly identify myself with a very different side of the debate.
All of a sudden I'm in an existential quandary, not because I don't know which stance I strongly affiliate with, nor a fear of being publicly known for it, but in that moment, one that I first thought would be free of political maneuvering, I discovered my own thoughts were drawn right back to them. What I wanted to say was that it was simply different living there, in the neighborhood, than anyone who hadn't lived there could really imagine. Being a tourist is not the same thing as living on that block of 33rd street, or 1st avenue, or 181st street. When this city is your home, you just feel differently about it, and once it gets in your blood, well, it's hard to describe.
And the most available reference to me at that moment was the Islamic community center. I had been talking about it in detail all week. There, I said it. And how the locals had already vetted it and approved it. How the national media then descended to create a narrative, and rather than presenting the story up to that point (clearly defining the project in fact, giving the full story of local approval, Bloomberg support, etc...) as it had happened, presented crazy-talk misinformation and false equivalency.
My discussant nodded her head and said, "Yes. It gets political very quickly."
And I realized that part of New York, maybe everyone understands.
[Note To Self: stick with the subway system and Kosher-Sushi-Pizzeria Delis when asked in the future about the differences between NYC and Canton, OH.]
Dinner, 2 Nights Later
With my sister and BIL. BIL hardcore anti-tax single issue conservative. I'm asked by BIL about the mosque (his phrasing). On the television behind him, just over his shoulder, CNN reporting on Glenn Beck's "Freedom Ride," running clips of quotes and shots of the crowd. I'm trying to work my way through my own now-well-worn talking points and Bloomberg quotes, and fighting the urge to glance up, over his shoulder, and work in how Beck's rhetoric is the very kind of thing that has fed the misunderstandings, miscommunication, and misrepresentation surrounding the community center and prayer space.
Grandstanding. Posturing. Peacockery. False concern.
And then, just as quickly, the media circus drops the now-cold hot potato and races off to declare and debate and "narrate" the next one.
Coda
To each person's credit, and to my own great relief, every person who asked about the LES "controversy" did so from a place of genuine and open curiosity. I did not encounter a single person looking spar with me, or score points, or "set up" the NYC kid for a fall. Each conversation was honest, to the point(s), and considerate of what all involved were saying.
I very much, at the end of the week, have the feeling that I was being asked, "So how much of what I'm hearing on the news and in the newspapers about this is really true? You live there, you probably know something about it I don't know, or haven't heard yet. What do you think?"
That I had such a long list of news items and interpretations so far from the truth, and that there were so many truthful items left out of nearly all news reports, was disheartening for me.
That so many people were curious and open, and aware that this was the case, and asked about it, was very heartening.
People are questioning. People are skeptical of Boortz and O'Reilly and Hannity. People are wondering if what they are hearing in the media is the real story, or even all of the story.
I may not have done the best job possible at answering their questions, or filling in the news-media gaps, or dispelling the myths and misinformation, but I didn't shy away from or back-down from the questions, either. And the bit about the 1st Amendment in practice versus in theory was a real winner with a lot of people. Thank you John Stewart for that bit of verbal wit.
How do you feel about the [whatever you choose to call it?]
TWLTW
- The rumors are true. Bristol Palin up next on Dancing With The Stars. I just don't even know what to say about that. How many times will Sarah be seen ringside during the show?
- Temple Grandin at the Emmy's Sunday night. I had heard this film was the real deal, but hadn't seen it (basic cable deprivation woes). I was glad to see its inspiration and production team be recognized, though.
- Lil' C. at my sister's house yesterday afternoon in Ohio, "My tv doesn't get Wonderpets. Do you think yours does?" Again, with the basic cable deprivation. But, yes, it did. "THANK YOU!"
- For those who have an interest in language, and how language acts as a code that contains 'metainformation' about a speaker, or the speaker's unspoken thoughts, this NYT articlefrom a couple of days ago is chock-full of interesting insights.
- An economic study of airplane ticket pricing claims the best time to purchase a flight, if lowest fair is your only criteria, is in the afternoon around 8 weeks before the flight.
- Some incredible slow motion footage of hummingbirds in flight, and fighting over access to the best flowers. I just can't get over how absolutely still their heads and beaks are while those wings and their bodies are just about all over the place. Made me think of Irish dancing!
- Zyklon B (yes, that Zyklon B) was used in the early 20th century as a remedy for bedbugs in NYC apartments. Also, sheets were dusted with DDT to kill them, and nurseries and infant wards in hospitals were decorated with DDT infused wallpaper. Yet another reason to not immediately buy into the claim, "We didn't have/do/need that when we were kids and we turned out fine." Yes, times have changed, and we have to keep changing to adapt to them.
What Did You Learn This Week?