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Re: The Big Apple........
I never said this. And I stand by what I said about penis envy. You exstapolated alot from one sentence.
Originally posted by astonas
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Eh, it might be envy from some, but I suspect that for most of the country, it's more of an indifference. NYC may embody America for some - but for the most part, it is only to the people who live there. In my experience, people in the midwest think that THEY are the embodiment of "real" America, and the same for California, and Texas, and the south, and generally for people who live anywhere else in the country. Come to think of it, perhaps what most embodies America is the same local-boosterism lampooned in Sinclair Lewis' "Babbitt", in which the title character plugs for his local "Zenith" whenever he can. Those who place special value on any given place are free to move there, and for the most part, already have. Those that haven't moved, generally don't sit around pining to live in New York, or anywhere else for that matter. It just doesn't get thought about that much, really.
And as for 9/11, I'm not sure that "taking if for the country" is the fairest way to describe it. It took a hit because it symbolized a certain ethos of financial bravado - which much of the rest of the country is as likely to reject as it is to embrace. People rallied 'round after the event. But that was more out of a sense of being under attack than any particular validation of NYC's values. If Chicago, San Francisco, or Boston had been hit, people would have rallied 'round in the same manner, and it wouldn't have been an endorsement of those cities' values as being particularly "American" either. And let's not forget that Washington DC's Capital Building and Pentagon were also targets in the attacks. NYC was simply the one where the attack was most "successful".
The attacks were a tragedy, and for my part I think it cheapens the loss of life that occurred on that day, and the heroism of the firefighters who ran into the buildings, to use it to justify a special status for the city in which part of the tragedy occurred. Those lives are far too valuable to be bandied about in a cheap local-boosterim pissing contest. Those lives weren't taken because they were New Yorkers. They were taken because they were Americans. The tragedy isn't less for the families of the people who died in D.C., or who were in the airplanes that crashed, than it is for those who were working in NYC at the time. To use 9/11 to claim NYC is in some way better is to forget this, and to denigrate their memory.
I'm glad you loved NYC. But please don't use 9/11 to claim that it is better, or that others' ambivalence to your local area is a result of "penis envy". It is demeaning, and a good example of the self-centered attitude of entitlement that repels so many away from the region.
And as for 9/11, I'm not sure that "taking if for the country" is the fairest way to describe it. It took a hit because it symbolized a certain ethos of financial bravado - which much of the rest of the country is as likely to reject as it is to embrace. People rallied 'round after the event. But that was more out of a sense of being under attack than any particular validation of NYC's values. If Chicago, San Francisco, or Boston had been hit, people would have rallied 'round in the same manner, and it wouldn't have been an endorsement of those cities' values as being particularly "American" either. And let's not forget that Washington DC's Capital Building and Pentagon were also targets in the attacks. NYC was simply the one where the attack was most "successful".
The attacks were a tragedy, and for my part I think it cheapens the loss of life that occurred on that day, and the heroism of the firefighters who ran into the buildings, to use it to justify a special status for the city in which part of the tragedy occurred. Those lives are far too valuable to be bandied about in a cheap local-boosterim pissing contest. Those lives weren't taken because they were New Yorkers. They were taken because they were Americans. The tragedy isn't less for the families of the people who died in D.C., or who were in the airplanes that crashed, than it is for those who were working in NYC at the time. To use 9/11 to claim NYC is in some way better is to forget this, and to denigrate their memory.
I'm glad you loved NYC. But please don't use 9/11 to claim that it is better, or that others' ambivalence to your local area is a result of "penis envy". It is demeaning, and a good example of the self-centered attitude of entitlement that repels so many away from the region.
I never said this. And I stand by what I said about penis envy. You exstapolated alot from one sentence.
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