[Mb-civic] NY - Post RNC Report

[Barbara Siomos]

Thanks for the follow up post from your friend RJ, I do remember the fbi
visit. Also I had similar feelngs when I first arrived in nyc in the
early 60's that Doric had in the 50's.... :-) They were wonderful times.

peace,
barbara
>Date: Mon, Sep 6, 2004, 8:06am (EDT-3) 
>From: RJ Mac <nycrjmac at yahoo.com> 
>To: mb-civic at islandlists.com 

 Well the formal hate-fest has come and gone. I must say, I kept myself
away from the hot zones of conventioneers and protestors, and so found
the city nearly abandoned; a weekday afternoon in Times Square was about
as populated as a suburban park. Instead of customary throngs of
citizens and tourists: a police presence hard to comprehend. On every
corner, pairs of police with firearms at-ready, not handguns in holsters
in case of need: rifles with sites held up in both hands and eyes
scanning. Teams of motorcycle cops, police escorted busses of
conventioneers and caravans of police vehicles speeding through sparsely
trafficked streets. There is no simile or metaphor. This city was under
military occupation. One friend was actually harrassed by police inside
a pharmacy while he went to obtain his medical supplies. Washington
treated New York City and it's residents like a kinder, gentler Iraq. 
=================== 
a week or so back I forwarded a post from a playwright friend re: his
visit by the FBI. I've taken the liberty of forwarding his follow-up: 
==================== 
Regarding recent visitors to my city. 
When I came to Manhattan in the late 1950s it was for me a safe haven. I
somehow felt the hatred lurking out there in middle America could not
reach me here. Remember, back then this was the America of segregation
and the McCarthy witch hunts and the cookie cutter conformity which
passes now as "happy days" nostalgia only for those who didn't live
through it. Landing in NYC was like landing on a square on a Monopoly
board only to discover you already owned it. You were home free. 
Even to this day I feel safe here, 9/11 be damned. Or I did until last
week. I only had to look out of my window or walk up my street to see a
cherished Republican wet dream come true - New York City as a police
state. Two cops on every corner - some with machine guns - snarling at
us locals, almost begging us to make their day (you live here, you are a
"girlie-man"–and fair game). Pure GOP Viagra for the limpest
conservative dick. All that was missing for the perfect sexual climax
were the "concentration camps." 
As one Republican woman (for some reason she thought I was a retired
policeman) explained to me "to win the war on terror we may need to
detain" - and I quote - "political malcontents, sexual deviates and
racial ingrates." She added with a sweet motherly smile "if only for
their own good." I asked her who she meant by "racial ingrates." After a
quick look over her shoulder to see who might be listening and gesturing
widely, she answered "Them!...those people have no gratitude! You give
them absolutely everything and they still demand more." I didn't dare
ask about the "sexual deviates." 
Years ago I came home to a burgled apartment. I felt violated. I felt
what belongings remained had been desecrated, my very life besmirched. I
wanted to move out immediately. An actress friend of mine suggested I
cool it and recommended I take a shower, sort of a ritual cleansing. It
worked. I could now slowly take back my life. The violation of my city
is another matter. To paraphrase the Scottish play "all the perfumes of
Arabia will not sweeten the stench" left behind by the pachyderms.
Wherever I step there seems to be steaming piles of malice. I doubt my
city will ever be clean again. I do know it is no longer safe. And I do
not mean from terrorists. 
Doric Wilson 

PS - Now that Ed Koch (former Democratic mayor of NYC and longtime enemy
of gay people - read David Carter's Stonewall) is a spokesperson for
Ariel Sharon shouldn't he register himself as an agent of a foreign
government?