Thoughts on the Terrorist Attack in Manhattan

I spent last night walking around lower Manhattan — not too close to the West Side Highway, out of respect for the victims and courtesy for the police and paramedics, but less than a mile away. What I saw is what makes me love living in New York: not an outpouring of grief, not sidewalks devoid of pedestrians fearful for their lives, and certainly not anger at people who nominally share a religion with the attacker (“nominally” because his twisted version of Islam is not that of the hundreds of thousands of peaceful New York Muslims).

I saw normalcy.

Kids and parents walked the streets trick-or-treating. Teenagers aimlessly loitered, too cool to dress up and ask for candy, too young to enter the multitude of bars packed with Halloween revelers. The Village Halloween Parade marched on as usual.

Muslims joined Christians joined Jews joined atheists joined — well, every religion in the world, really — in a celebration of New York and of its diversity, but also of its quintessential “Americanness.”

This is what America is: a land of freedom for all, a welcoming beacon for immigrants seeking a better life — accepted by those already living here.

We cannot afford to give up our fundamental values as Americans — the values this country was founded on — because of one evildoer. Closing our borders, as the right-wing wants — as the president wants! — would do nothing to stop evil, but it would irreparably tarnish the goodness of America.

From the site of this heinous attack, you can see the Statue of Liberty presiding over New York Harbor.

She still lifts her lamp beside the golden door — and must continue to do so.