Dear G.O.P.:
Hi. I hear you’re planning on coming to New York City. I’m seeing ads with Democratic Former Mayor Ed Koch, saying we should welcome you to New York City. People are saying we should be open-minded, take the moral high road and embrace your culture even while your party attempts to destroy ours. Personally, I have been attempting of late to become a more politically fair-minded human being. I have avoided demonizing those with viewpoints different than mine, realizing that while I fundamentally disagree with most if not all of the GOP platform stands, I should nonetheless understand that you’re not actually 1. Satan or 2. out to get me personally. You are entitled to your opinion, and people are entitled to vote for you.
Be that as it may. As a die-hard New Yorker by choice, by, character, by fire, and by Voter Registration Card, I have a few things I’d like to share with you…
First, stop bragging that you’re holding the convention at Madison Square Garden. To most savvy New Yorkers, MSG is a frightening corporate atrocity that stands for one thing alone: the destruction of the elaborately beautiful Pennsylvania Station. Penn was once a soaring majestic central hub for travelers all over the world. It was part of the City and it was torn down mercilessly to make way for the culturally-bereft monstrosity that is Madison Square Garden. Destroying Penn Station is a dark moment in this City’s cultural history, and it gave birth to the movement to protect historical buildings so that corporate-driven crimes like that can’t ever happen again. So while you’ve managed to tame the great city for your gathering, we’re all having a bit of a laugh that you’ve picked one of the ugliest, most soulless places in the world to do it at. Typical.
Second, we all know you’re here to claim September 11th as your own. We know you’re holding the first ever Republican Convention in New York City, site of five Democratic Conventions, because you’re building a campaign of jingoistic fear around the threat of terrorism. Well, your fan base might fall for it, GOP. They might get all teary-eyed watching you broadcast your corporate war-mongering from the platform of this City’s tragedy. But rest assured, we won’t fall for it. We were actually HERE, or have you forgotten? We weren’t in bunkers in Washington, or cozy homes in Maryland, or even watching from the safety of our televisions at any other point in the world. New Yorkers ran, coughed, rescued, struggled, and died on September 11th. It’s not a political platform, no matter how you portray it as such. It was a nightmare, and it was awful, and the more you wrestle it into your own personal vendetta in order to frighten Americans into not changing horses in midstream, the more injustice you do to the very real tragedy that occurred here three years ago.
And third – holding your convention here does not make you more attuned to New Yorkers. It does not make the soul of this city yours. New York was built on freaks and gangsters and daredevils. Sure, it’s a money making machine – but it’s got the soul of a fast-talking homeless transvestite junkie. All the people you rail against – the pro-choice vegetarian anti-guns anti-war gay radicals? They’ve made this city great. And even those of us who wear the cloak of normalcy, even those New Yorkers who work boring industry-churning 9 to 5 jobs, or shuffle their kids from clarinet practice to soccer games in Central Park, or build soaring skyscrapers like Donald Trump – even those New Yorkers that vote Republican – they’ve all got a little bit of the crazy screaming freak in them. We’re all living in the great tradition of Whitman’s barbaric yawp. Otherwise, we’d live somewhere far less complicated. Every real New Yorker is a freak, G.O.P. And damnit, they like it that way.
So go ahead. Come here and parade your nationalistic elephants, close off commuter exits, flood the City with the National Guard. Go ahead. Provide sterilised guided tours for your complacent close-minded delegates, abuse the 9/11 platform. Someone gave you the keys for your little assignation in this town. Our erstwhile Republican Mayor and Governor may have encouraged you to think this dirty liason means something. So pretend like it’s yours, if you want. But remember to wipe your scum off our walls on your way out. This city isn’t yours. The beating heart of bonvivant freakdom, of tough-talking survivors, it’s not for sale and it’s not on display and it’s not yours to abuse.
So enjoy your stay. But don’t get too comfortable.
Love,
Krissa
AMEN!
though it does remind me that the voter’s registration bureau still hasn’t seen fit to send me my new card.
rarr!
Brava!
Brava, indeed. What a passionate and most triumphantly written post, Ms. K. I stand with you on this issue.
I LOVE this post.
Just the fact that they refer to themselves as the “Grand Old Party” (and all that that implies) is enough to make my blood boil.
The GOP may not be Satan, but I suspect its great leader is the anti-Christ.
Great post!!!!
That was an excellent piece of writing. And this comes from a devout Republican!
well written. go, Krissa. I agree with you 100%.
They held the 1988 Republican convention in my town, New Orleans. It was the summer between my sophomore and junior years of high school. N’Awlins has its own streak of freakdom and I remember feeling the same way about the GOP then, too.
Hullo. Nicely done, but I don’t think they care what New Yorkers think of their little shebang . . . they wouldn’t win here if they went out on the street distributing large checks and onto subway platforms installing air conditioners. All the ground-zero grovelling is aimed at Florida, and Prnnsylvania, and whatever other middle-american states are still in play. It’s still going to be a royal pain in the arse for us, mind you.
That made a lot more sense after I looked up what GOP was.
Yes! Well-said!
“We’re Christian, and you’re gay, and you’ll never fit into our group!”
“We’re freaky New Yorkers, and you’re a staid Republican, and you’ll never fit into our group.”
What’s the difference?
Aren’t Jesus-freaks freaky enough for NYC?
I liked the post, but quite frankly, some of these comments are out there –way out there.
well, jager, you did add the caveat of being a devout republican. and i’d like to point out that i don’t hate the republican party as much as i hate that they’re convening here.
please note that all strip clubs and hookers are booked solid the entire week by republicans.
anyway, well said my dear
Beautifully said.
this is fantastic, krissa. well said, and something i agree with completely.
Krissa, been reading as many of your posts without going cross-eyed and I have to say you are a fantastic writer able to pour out your emotions in such a way as to have them reflect on others. Absolutely fabulous. I must admit that, not being an American citizen myself, I do not so much care about the American presidential race which is starting to rev up its engines at the moment. Moreover, I was unfortunately living in Florida during the last “chad” elections… All I can say is that it was disgraceful… But please, do you think you may be able to answer one of my eternally unanswered questions in your relentless politico-emotional campaign of your own… How come Americans are either Democrats or Republicans from birth?… What is it that binds most Americans to one party or the other for the rest of their lives? What have these parties done to them in order to gain such inconceivable loyalty? THAT is something that I will NEVER understand… How US elections are basically won and lost by an extreme minority of people which get labelled as the “undecided”. But other than that, I remember reading your posts about a year or two ago and I think that you are just improving yourself in your own field of art! Go for it!
It’s sad to me that so many people can be such sheep. Your lame post starts out with how you try not to ‘demonize’ people that think differently from you but then you accuse the GOP of politicizing 9/11, being nationalistic, close-minded and scummy. Very nice. Your comments about what real New Yorkers are are laughable and prove what a tourist you yourself are in this city. Real New Yorkers blame MSG for destroying Pennsylvania Station? Are you serious? New Yorkers see MSG as a place to catch Knicks games and U2 concerts, only the most pretentious transplants would see it as anything else. I grew up in NY, am a registered Republican and will be voting for Bush in November. And you can have your corny, little diatribes with the rest of you people nodding your empty little heads along with it, but you don’t know what New York is if you think it’s about excluding people and you don’t know anything about politics if you think being against choice, guns, and gays is limited to Republicans. Where are your two Democratic senators on gay marriage? You’d think that if anyone could come out for gay marriage it would be the Senators from New York. Where is your presidential candidate on gun rights? What is his ‘personal’ position on abortion? Why are you such a knee-jerking, unthinking person? When and how were you brainwashed to believe that anyone with an (R) next to their name is evil? And will you ever grow up and actually expand your mind or will you always be a drone who follows the crowd?
C and Esther, I guess I expected better from the two of you than mindless agreeing.
Dear Karissa!
I hear you don’t like us Republicans in New York. I hear people saying we aren’t open-minded enough, not tolerant enough, not freaky enough, totally hypocritical, and all-around evil.
We hear real New Yorkers are so open-minded, they will never have a Republican as a friend. We hear New Yorkers are so wild, they keep electing freaky fascists such as Giuliani as their mayors. And we hear New Yorkers are so honest, only they have the guts to admit the fact that only liberals are welcome in this capital of diversity.
So Karissa, please forgive us for being such ignorant bigots. Expose us for the hateful hypocrites that we are.
Just don’t forget to pull your educated head out of your sophisticated ass. Some of us happen to live right here in NYC, loving it just as much as your “progressive” self. These are our streets, too.
This is what disappoints me more and more about New Yorkers. More and more claim to be much more open minded than anyone else in the country, loving people of all sorts of colors, sexual preferences and religions. Then people like yourself go off on how you so-unfreaky-straight -assed Republicans should love us freaky-crazy New Yorkers. Please. As Karol said, being Republican has far more other issues than looking down on you crazy kids. Open your eyes.
And by the way, so much good music and great sports has come out of MSG but your so “frightened” of corporate america you can’t see the beauty in bringing people together for the love of their interests. I would put money that you have seen a Knicks game and enjoyed it.
Krissa,
I heartily agree with you about Madison Square Garden. What an ugly, vile building and what a travesty.
But I don’t think many Democrats will be thinking about Penn Station at all. No, they’ll be having smug thoughts about Republicans and what kind of people they are and how square they are. But, hey, that’s what Republicans are, so so be it.
Then again, I look at all the mind-numbingly boring yuppie liberal families in my building and think, “what the hell?” I mean, after all, this is a city that thought getting a Target was a big deal. And don’t be mistaken. The only reason New York is so successful right now, is so populated, is so easy to live in and not a shell of a war zone like it was back in the 70s and 80s is because all those junked up hookers and crackheads have been, in some way shape or form, dealt with.
New York may have a strong gangster heritage, but it wasn’t built by freaks and daredevils. It was built by money. By good solid Dutch money. It was so money-focused that they forgot to build a church for some years (but don’t tell Dubya and the more religious part of the party that). But relying too much on the history of a place as an indication of where it now stands… that only leads to trouble. After all, if we want to delve into the soul of New York, we could also look at the race riots during the Civil War.
Granted, the RNC is just a big fake media event … just like the DNC in Boston. It’s all crap. And I guess if New York City Democrats want to get worked up about it and act superior, fine. I’m sure if there WERE an urban area that was majority Republican, the reverse would happen. (And why urban areas, diverse as they may be from working-class otherwise conservative union stiffs all the way to limousine liberals, trend Democrat is a much longer and complex topic.)
And it’s good to take pride in the city. And I guess it’s okay to take some sort of weird pride in “being here.” But don’t be mistaken, 9/11 was a result of politics … 8+ years of politicians (both sides of the aisle, yes) and people closing their eyes and hoping it would all go away if we talked about the issues and used a couple of cruise missiles and basically ignored attack after attack after attack (one successful one on New York and one failed one on New York prior to 9/11). And it’s still about politics.
One party wants to pretend that we’ve gone back to 9/10. The other is holding its convention here in New York.
Well said. Thanks for a little education and a lifting of my spirits today.
Ken – some very good points. Even though one of New York’s first Governors was an open transvestite.
Ivan – my name is actually spelled Krissa. Right there at the bottom of the post, see?
and Jessica – no. I’ve never seen a Knicks game.
Karol: I would have thought, being such an opinionated person, rather than being condescending towards other commenters, you would have acknowledged their right to their own opinions?
Kerrissa,
I’m sorry about the misspelling, and I’m even sorrier you chose such a pussy way to dismiss my comment. Doesn’t go well with your “tough-talking freak” self-image, you see?
but ivan! even freaks believe in democracy! you can say whatever you want about me, my friend. just don’t ask me to respond.
Krissa,
I across this website and it reminded me of your post. Thought you would be interested.
http://www.shutitdownnyc.com/
Susanne
I’d like to say that I’m more than somewhat disappointed in Karol’s response to this post. I don’t agree with her politics, but I’ve always found her approach… inoffensive. So, political disagreements aside, I had always thought of her as a rational mind. But an outright attack, and cutting personal remarks to those who are supposedly her friendly acquaintances? When they agree with something that rings true with them, it then becomes reason to call your friends “mindless?” Honestly, you really lost some of your cred there, Karol.
bravo, fish. bra-fucking-vo.
Fish, replace the word ‘Republicans’ for ‘Jews’ or ‘Blacks’ or anything else. Reread the piece. Then imagine you are the person at the receiving end of that venom. Then reread the ‘you go girl’ lemming comments. Would you be ok with that? When you call Republicans scummy, you’re talking about me. When you tell them they’re not welcome in your city (my city!) you’re talking about me. You’re not talking about people like me, you’re talking about ME. So, you’ve got to be kidding me that I should just not say anything and pretend it’s ok that they think this of ME. If you don’t like me because -gasp- I believe in lower taxes, a strong defense and less government then say so. Don’t be nice to my face and then woohoo nasty comments about me behind my back. Or, am I the exception to the rule of all Republicans being horrible? Like that one black friend you have who isn’t like the rest of ‘them’?
Oh good LORD, Karol. It’d be one thing if she came over to YOUR site and bashed republicans. But you bash Liberals on your blog ALL the time and we don’t go home and cry about how mean the kids on the playground were. And really, since when were all jews or blacks republicans?
If you want to justify being unprovoked name-calling by turning this into a PERSONAL matter, go ahead. Be martyred.
Sigh.
I’m just saying you lost your cool. And I lost a bit of respect. That’s all.
i’m dumbstruck. krissa said she didn’t like that the GOP convention was coming to NYC. she’s allowed to say that and others are allowed to agree. i’m not sure why krissa’s post has upset you so much, karol, and i also don’t understand why you can’t respect that we have different opinions. when i see all the anti-liberal comments on your blog, i don’t go ape because i respect the fact that we see things differently. that’s what’s so great about this country. so said, you’re allowed to criticize us for our opinions. on a personal level, though, i’m just more than a little bit hurt that you’d call me “mindless” just for agreeing with krissa.