BookPeople
Have You Ever Been to New York City?
RECEIVED Sun., Jan. 20, 2013
Dear Editor,
Texas needs to stop electing public officials who make its citizenry look like provincial philistines. I’m thinking of that buffoon, Rick Perry, and now of Greg Abbott, who proposes that New Yorkers move to the boonies so they can pack heat in public.
Mr. Abbott, I gather that you have never been to New York City. Manhattan is a vast glittering island full of historical sites (some dating back to the American Revolution); restaurants (cheap to expensive, all nationalities); art museums; independent bookstores; imposing public libraries, skyscrapers, and bridges (the Brooklyn Bridge was an engineering masterpiece that became an American icon); concert halls; nightclubs; glamorous hotels and stores; theatres; and museums of science and history (subjects too many Texans don’t believe in). A civilized, reasonably educated tourist would find innumerable entertaining and fascinating things to do there.
I visited NYC last weekend and stayed in Harlem so that I could visit two old mansions. When I got on the subway at 125th Street, three men (young and black and not together) immediately warned me that my backpack was unzipped. At the top of the backpack was a nice set of headphones.
What would a tourist do in New York, Texas? Take potshots at prairie dogs? Count the dead armadillos on the highway? Eat greasy barbecue and drink light beer while watching sports on a big-screen TV? Experience the thrill of shooting at an annoying driver?
Texas needs to stop electing public officials who make its citizenry look like provincial philistines. I’m thinking of that buffoon, Rick Perry, and now of Greg Abbott, who proposes that New Yorkers move to the boonies so they can pack heat in public.
Mr. Abbott, I gather that you have never been to New York City. Manhattan is a vast glittering island full of historical sites (some dating back to the American Revolution); restaurants (cheap to expensive, all nationalities); art museums; independent bookstores; imposing public libraries, skyscrapers, and bridges (the Brooklyn Bridge was an engineering masterpiece that became an American icon); concert halls; nightclubs; glamorous hotels and stores; theatres; and museums of science and history (subjects too many Texans don’t believe in). A civilized, reasonably educated tourist would find innumerable entertaining and fascinating things to do there.
I visited NYC last weekend and stayed in Harlem so that I could visit two old mansions. When I got on the subway at 125th Street, three men (young and black and not together) immediately warned me that my backpack was unzipped. At the top of the backpack was a nice set of headphones.
What would a tourist do in New York, Texas? Take potshots at prairie dogs? Count the dead armadillos on the highway? Eat greasy barbecue and drink light beer while watching sports on a big-screen TV? Experience the thrill of shooting at an annoying driver?
Caroline Hamilton
Pittsburgh, Pa.
Pittsburgh, Pa.
