During the last TV debate of the Republican candidates to president, the exchange between Ted Cruz and Donald Trump provoked the most and most acerbic comments. Cruz mentioned “New York values” in a somewhat derogatory manner sparking Trump’s typically aggressive response. Most commentators, being born or adopted New Yorkers sided with Trump, an unusual response for people who abhor the man. Trumps defense was based on an event totally atypical of NY’s history, the 9/11 disaster. It gave rise to an equally atypical NY response, unity of purpose.
I understood what Cruz meant by NY values. I’ve been there. It is the only place in the US I have experienced overt discrimination. Also the only place where one perceives a great many pedestrians passing you walk as if they were bearing an enormous chip on their shoulders. Yes, paraphrasing Winston Churchill’s elocution referencing Londoner’s resistance to Nazi bombing, “This was their finest hour”, 9/11 was New Yorkers “finest hour”, but the intervening 14 years have not erased their intrinsic values.
Isla De Cabras 