On the way to the Arab street fair on Great Jones Street, I chanced by a vendor on the Bowery at a different fair who had nary a customer. The vendor in frustration shouted out “ This is a special sale. Everything must go because the Feds are on to me and are sending me to------ New Jersey.”
When I got to Great Jones Street, there was a line of mixed men and women, holding hands and dancing around in a circle to blaring music. When the dance was over, a young woman in a headscarf addressed the audience, speaking in a rather heavy Brooklyn accent. She called out various Arab countries and asked people to identify themselves whose ancestors came from those countries. Then she asked who was from Brooklyn? Pandemonium ensued. She asked for three cheers for Brooklyn and hundreds of men and many women wearing headscarves, punched the air and chanted Brooklyn, Brooklyn, Brooklyn. The realization dawned on me that these people may wear funny headgear but they are first and foremost New Yorkers and that I probably have more in common with them than with someone from Duluth.
Making my way down the block, I was stopped by a rather stout man wearing a fez. He asked me if I lived in Manhattan? “Kind of”, I said. “I live in the far fringes of Innwood, near the Spuyten Duyvil”. “What are you doing down here?” “Slumming,” I said. “Also, I love Middle Eastern food.” It turned out that he wanted me to sign a petition to put the Green Party on the ballot. Now I consider the Green party to be a bunch of crackpots. But I consider the two major national parties to be just different shades of vanilla and I will gladly sponsor even a crackpot party just to get some sort of serious debate goin
No comments:
Post a Comment