A DEEP BREATH

A DEEP BREATH

Now is the time to take a deep breath. Maybe more than just one. As many as it may take until there is a greater sense of calm. Personal calm.

Those who have lost (or fear so, due to the lack of surety) loved ones are not expected to calm down anytime soon. Those whose lives have been unceremoniously and unjustly turned upside down are less likely to be calm in the short term.

Then there's the rest of us.

New Yorkers have a certain grit for which they are famous. In a melting pot country, there is no greater melting pot city than New York. Washington is next in cultural diversity, possibly folowed by Miami and then Los Angeles.

But New Yorkers are known for a certain attitude, an ability to cope, and for reasons that always have astounded this writer, the disdain, scorn and sometimes outright animus of others, even from nearby locations.

New Yorkers are famous for dealing with adversity. Back in the Summer of 1977 there were those two blackouts. A degree of looting took place, but otherwise the city remained, well, actually rather calm. New Yorkers band together in these times. Neighborhoods, or just local areas (could be a block, a group of apartment houses, whatever) unite to face whatever the crisis or group concern may be.

A stalker in a neighborhood, that deranged man who walked around the Upper West Side, gangs of purse snatchers or similar such bullies...bring out a sense of community among the most diverse of neighbors. More political sorts of matters unify New Yorkers, as well. Woody Allen loaned his support and talents to a group of New Yorkers seeking to protect air rights, a group attempting to prevent a bank from erecting a skyscraper that would cast a shadown on their buildings, their corner, their little slice of the city.

In the aftermath of the attack on the World Trade Center, New Yorkers face a different set of issues. Continued concerns for safety, fear of a second wave of terror, and a universal sens of sadness, loss, grief, and in many cases, outrage, pervades the area.

New Yorkers are by all means inconvenienced by the results and aftermath of Tuesday's tragedy. Subways and buses no longer traverse all the usual paths. Crowd control by the police limits pedestrian access to various areas. There are no deliveries (or other non-essential/non-crucial traffic) below 14th Street. That means getting a paper, or eggs or milk requires quite the hike for denizens of the Lower East Side, Chinatown, Soho, Tribeca, parts of The Village, and other little nook'n'cranny neighborhoods around and about below 14th Street.

Inconvenienced, upset, grieving... yes. Angry? Sure. Coping? No doubt. New Yorkers are past masters at coping. To some, their stress is actually their red badge of courage worn in pride as they make their way in their demanding city life.

The key fact, though, is that New Yorkers are the most considerate, tolerant and diverse people in the world. Everyday on subways and buses, in marketplaces, on the sidewalks and in malls, restuarants, drugstores, and the like, people from all walks of life interact without incident.

In New York there are cops and subway operators, deli countermen and cabbies, waiters/waitresses, executives, blue collar types, street people and visitors from everywhere in the world. From every background one can imagine. Chinese cops, Japanese bagel makers, Thai nail salon operators, Jews in various shops, Africans of all sorts, middle easterners, people from everywhere, doing everything.

A year or so ago the Sunday Times Magazine had an entertaining article about how Mexican restaurants are run by the Chinese, Pizza places by the Greeks, cab groups seemingly the province of the Pakistanis (following past waves of Russian and then Afghanistani cab drivers). South and Central Americans and Caribbeans are everywhere. And the Russians! They seem to be multiplying exponentially, too.

The point is this: New Yorkers get along with each other. Transplanted Africans hop into cabs driven by Pakistanis to Mexican restaurants run by The Chinese. The UN is in NYC. Of course, where else would it make any more sense?

The deep breath following the attack is to calm the anger and the outrage. It is also meant to cool off hotter heads. There's a section in Brooklyn along Atlantic Avenue, right near the East River, jam packed with middle easterners of all sorts and types. There are stores with signs in Arabic. Middle Eastern music can be heard as one passes from store to store.

I lived very close by, in Brooklyn Heights, for about ten years. It was always a joy to take a walk over to Atlantic Avenue. Shop for spices and various culinary delights, listen to the music, take in the local hustle-bustle. Arabs of all kinds, Muslims in various religious or indigneous garb, mini-mosques and temples, you name it, it can be found there. One nearly expects to have to shake the sand out of their shoes after a visit to Atlantic Avenue.

I saw on the news this afternoon that Atlantic Avenue is like a ghost town these days. Fear grips many shopkeepers, who have closed their stores for the short term.

Here where I am, in the suburbs, there's a Pakistani mosque across the street and around the corner from my office. Usually there are any number of people connected to the mosque (you can't miss them, in their white robes and skullcaps) in the local convenience stores, or walking around the immediate area. The mosque has a day school, and seems to serve as a cultural center and gathering place as well as a place of prayer.

They look different, and for the most part keep to themselves, speaking Urdu and not integrating into life with much community interaction here in the this NY Metro suburb. But they are welcome neighbors. They do not disturb the peace or upset any applecarts. I nod hello, or in some cases just acknowledgement, to some of them whom I see almost every day. Where I park the car, it is a part of my daily routine to walk right past the mosque, and past the little convenience store (owned by a Pakistani buddy of mine) they tend to use more than the other ones nearby.

They may appear different, adhering to their customary dress and such, but they are our neighbors, as are we theirs.

A neighborhood down from here, in another village, there are a few zillion Orthodox Jews, Hasidim and others of various Orthodox-sects of Judaism. The Hasidim and come of the Orthodox ("the Black Hats") also look different, and in some cases they look pretty strange. Anyone not familiar with the earlocks (pais) of the men, some of whom wear a rabbit hat even in the dog days of Summer, might think they'd gone back a century or two though some time machine, seeing all these Eastern-European garbed and speaking people.

This ramble, this semi rant, is about cultural diversity. Here in the outer suburbs, as in NYC where it is even more pronounced, we are a people of many peoples. We get along, either interacting or just living alongside each other with minimal interaction.

Here I am, an assimilated American Jew, living among Pakistanis and their mosque, right by a Catholic church, and nearby enclaves of people from the Dominican Republic, Polish immigrants, various Orthodox Jewish groups, a teeming Irish area, and communities of all sorts. Here in this county there is a very large Haitian and Jamaican community. And the numbers of Mexicans, Guatemalans, Ecuadoreans, and others from Peru, El Salvador and other countries from South and Central America seem to grow larger by the year.

And yet there are the majority of the people around here, and in nearby NYC, who appear to be as American as Apple Pie. "Suzie Creemcheese" and "Joe Six Pack" are everywhere to be found.

The point is this: we all live alongside each other. We tend to get along.

Since the attack on WTC (and The Pentagon) I have heard many cries for retalliation, to strike back. Aspersions about Arabs, Muslims, and middle easterners in general are also being flung.

This is wholly unacceptable.

Arab-Americans, middle-easterners, Moslems, one and all, are here for the same reasons we are here, and the same reasons our varied ancestors came here. This is a place of safety and certain freedoms, as well as opportunity.

That indications point to a middle-easterner being responsible for the attacks is no reason to want to "kick every sand-nigger's ass" or to "level the whole friggin middle east except for Israel," or other suggestions of the sort. (those are real quotes, btw)

The concept of flattening twice as much ground area as was attacked in NY and DC as some sort of "OH YEAH? MESS WITH US?!?! THIS IS WHAT YOU GET FOR THAT!" in retalliation is, well, just plain stupid.

Furthering the cycle of violence and destruction simply fuels the hatred and beliefs that caused this to occur in the first place. A macho/Rambo response to this act will simply continue the pattern, the animus, and the incentive to maintain and assert even more attacks of this or of other sorts.

Take a deep breath, Rambo. Play-act that macho thug bully thing by watching WWF on TV, or having dinner at one of those gladiator theme restaurants.

Speaking of stupid and dim, get a load of this:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28620-2001Sep14.html [1]

God Gave U.S. 'What We Deserve,' Falwell Says

By John F. Harris
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 14, 2001; Page C03

Television evangelists Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, two of the most prominent voices of the religious right, said liberal civil liberties groups, feminists, homosexuals and abortion rights supporters bear partial responsibility for Tuesday's terrorist attacks because their actions have turned God's anger against America.

"God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve," said Falwell, appearing yesterday on the Christian Broadcasting Network's "700 Club," hosted by Robertson.

"Jerry, that's my feeling," Robertson responded. "I think we've just seen the antechamber to terror. We haven't even begun to see what they can do to the major population."
Falwell said the American Civil Liberties Union has "got to take a lot of blame for this," again winning Robertson's agreement: "Well, yes."
Then Falwell broadened his blast to include the federal courts and others who he said were "throwing God out of the public square." He added: "The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way -- all of them who have tried to secularize America -- I point the finger in their
face and say, 'You helped this happen.' "
People for the American Way transcribed the broadcast and denounced the comments as running directly counter to President Bush's call for national unity. Ralph G. Neas, the liberal group's president, called the remarks "absolutely inappropriate and irresponsible."
Robertson and others on the religious right gave critical backing to Bush last year when he was battling for the GOP presidential nomination.

A White House official called the remarks "inappropriate" and added, "The president does not share those views."
Falwell was unrepentant, saying in an interview that he was "making a theological statement, not a legal statement."
"I put all the blame legally and morally on the actions of the terrorist," he said. But he said America's "secular and anti-Christian environment left us open to our Lord's [decision] not to protect. When a nation deserts God and expels God from the culture . . . the result is not good."
Robertson was not available for comment, a spokeswoman said. But she
released a statement echoing the remarks he made on his show. An ACLU spokeswoman said the group "will not dignify the Falwell-Robertson remarks with a comment."
© 2001 The Washington Post Company

What a jerk! But, a repentant jerk. Apparently the fallout from his polarizing, idiotic, insulting, narrow-minded remarks was a little much. Jerry must've thought this might have a negativeimpact on the fund-raising. Looky here! He issued what he would call an apology, and even did it via CNN:
Falwell apologizes to gays, feminists, lesbians
September 14, 2001 Posted: 2:55 AM EDT (0655 GMT) [2]

LYNCHBURG, Virginia (CNN) -- The Rev. Jerry Falwell said late Thursday he did not mean to blame feminists, gays or lesbians for bringing on the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington this week, in remarks on a television program earlier in the day.

On the broadcast of the Christian television program "The 700 Club," Falwell made the following statement:

"I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say 'you helped this happen.'"

Falwell, pastor of the 22,000-member Thomas Road Baptist Church, viewed the attacks as God's judgment on America for "throwing God out of the public square, out of the schools. The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked."

But in a phone call to CNN, Falwell said that only the hijackers and terrorists were responsible for the deadly attacks.

"I do believe, as a theologian, based upon many Scriptures and particularly Proverbs 14:23, which says 'living by God's principles promotes a nation to greatness, violating those principles brings a nation to shame,'" he said.

Falwell said he believes the ACLU and other organizations "which have attempted to secularize America, have removed our nation from its relationship with Christ on which it was founded."

"I therefore believe that that created an environment which possibly has caused God to lift the veil of protection which has allowed no one to attack America on our soil since 1812," he said.

Pat Robertson, host of the 700 Club program, seemed to agree with Falwell's earlier statements in a prayer during the program.

"We have sinned against Almighty God, at the highest level of our government, we've stuck our finger in your eye," said Robertson. "The Supreme Court has insulted you over and over again, Lord. They've taken your Bible away from the schools. They've forbidden little children to pray. They've taken the knowledge of God as best they can, and organizations have come into court to take the knowledge of God out of the public square of America."

National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Executive Director Lorri L. Jean bristled at the idea that gays and lesbians had anything to do with the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon that may have left thousands dead, and demanded an apology from Falwell.

"The terrible tragedy that has befallen our nation, and indeed the entire global community, is the sad byproduct of fanaticism. It has its roots in the same fanaticism that enables people like Jerry Falwell to preach hate against those who do not think, live, or love in the exact same way he does," she said.

"The tragedies that have occurred this week did not occur because someone made God mad, as Mr. Falwell asserts. They occurred because of hate, pure and simple. It is time to move beyond a place of hate and to a place of healing. We hope that Mr. Falwell will apologize to the U.S. and world communities."

Falwell told CNN: "I would never blame any human being except the terrorists, and if I left that impression with gays or lesbians or anyone else, I apologize."

Maybe I should have created a headline for those two stories, above, a little like this:

FALWELL'S REMARKS CAUSE TERRORISTS TO AIM AT CITIES WITH PEOPLE WHOSE BELIEFS DIFFER FROM HIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NEXT STRIKES LIKELY IN SAN FRANCISCO, PROVINCETOWN, KEY WEST, and MIAMI. FALWELL URGES "GOOD PEOPLE" TO FLEE FROM SINNERS WHO CAUSE THE TERRORISTS TO ATTACK US SOIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I guess religious extremists are off the wall everywhere, whether they are from Saudi Arabia or Lynchburg, VA. And they seem to use their pulpit to spread their nasty and evil messages whenever possible.

Yes, it is time to take another deep breath.