Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Strike, Day 2

Today is the beginnging of the second day of the transit strike. I realized at some point yesterday how New York can skew your perspective on the rest of the country. Half the day had gone by before I realized that in Chicago, in St. Louis, in Kalamazoo, life was moving as usual. Of course, I knew this, but to know something and to know something are two different things.

Strangely, in my mind, I had shut down the movement of the whole country. I suppose between the man-on-the-street madness of New York 1, our city's 24-hour local news channel, and front page stories in all the papers that were laying on the counter at the diner where I had lunch -- The New York Times, USA Today, The Washington Post, and severeal smaller local papers -- I had somehow convinced myself that no one could get to work.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Here's what perplexes me about the whole situation. TWU spokesman says workers are tired of being underappreciated and disrespected. By whom? Their employers, the general public, their families, the IRS? Going on strike, especially at a holiday time, is not the way to get respect. I don't imagine that there will be many congratulations handed out by the riding public when the workers return to work. I can see the glares and grim faces now. But I am not a NYer, so what do I know?