Okay. Yes. I admit it. I am a bad mother to my blog. It cries and I ignore it. It needs to be fed and I feed myself instead. I just don't have time to take care of this baby lately. Not only have I not had time, but I have not known where to begin. Do I begin with politics? How angry I am at George Bush, as ALWAYS? How fucked his anti-privacy crusade is? How fucked his tax breaks for the rich are? How sick I am about his war on the poor and on the environment and about our government's refusal to engage in a meaningful agreement to reduce pollution, global warming and oil dependency? How I wish people cared enough about these things to impeach this motherfucker. Somehow, a presidential blowjob still elicits a greater sense of outrage than a presidential grape-stomp on the liberties and constitution of the United States.
I guess I could begin with the New York City transit strike which is now officially over. Thank heavens. During the transit strike, nothing felt the same. The whole world seemed askew to me. I felt like the ground was sinking beneath my feet. I felt like I had nothing to grab on to.
I can't say one side was at fault, as it clearly took both the MTA and the Union to tango their way into this strike. The MTA shouldn't be so greedy and the Union shouldn't make crazy threats that lead to crazy behavior, only to end in nothing being gained or solved and millions of dollars lost for the city. The whole thing was a total morass and New Yorkers were furious and I was one of them. I wasn't as bent out of shape about my own ability to get to work as I was about the entire city being turned upside down, people suffering in the cold to get to jobs that they didn't have the luxury of missing, and the thought of Christmas in New York being hampered by the dispute between a fucked organization like the MTA and the uncompromising tactics of a Union. It's not that I feel that the union shouldn't have the deal it wants, but it is hard for millions of people to be sympathetic when they are the people trying desperately to get to a job where they might not have the power and clout to fight tooth and nail for the benefits and wages that they desire and they're being asked to sacrifice so that someone else can fight for their own. I had to agree that it seemed selfish. The union was wrong to punish the people of New York for the shitty deeds of the MTA.
On Tuesday I could not find a way to work. Rob and I couldn't ride into the city with only two people in the car due to restrictions - not that we wanted to brave the traffic anyway - and there was no reasonable alternative mode of transportation to Manhattan from my neighborhood in Brooklyn. So I took a vacation day and went to pick out a Christmas tree and finish up some shopping and I wasn't fussed at all. I was glad for the day off and knew that things were so slow in the office that it didn't make much of a difference. On Wednesday I found a carpool to the office with some co-workers. On Wednesday night, Rob picked me up at work and we went to watch the Spurs spank the living crap out of the Knicks at Madison Square Garden. Go Spurs!!! (I only care because their Rob's fave team.) We went to the Bronx and stayed the night at his old roommate's house and I took Metro North to work and back, which was really the best. Yesterday afternoon it was announced that union members were returning to work and by this morning the city was allowed to return to normal.
I am so relieved. Though New Yorkers have a way of forging ahead throughout all adversity, we would prefer to have unfettered access to our beloved public transportation system which is a part of life here that we take for granted because it is like breathing. The subways and buses never stop running. Or at least, they're not supposed to.
As for me, I feel like since I moved to this city five years ago, I have witnessed some of the most inauspicious events in history. 9/11. Blackout. Transit strike. Republican National Convention. I am apprehensive of what could possibly come next. If we stay on Bush's desired path to total environmental destruction, perhaps we have a massive island flood to look forward to...
Posted by Maria at December 23, 2005 01:06 PM | TrackBack