At the tail end of Park Avenue, where it merges into the Broadway, the island that separates the two lanes going north from the two headed south is quite narrow. Yesterday afternoon, when I was crossing the Avenue there was a brief break in the traffic going south, and so I walked across the two lanes. I had to stop at the island, as there was no let up in the traffic headed up town, waiting for the light to change. A rotund, bearded forty-something who was reasonably well dressed followed my lead. He too was stranded on the cement strip that kept us safe from the cars, trucks and the bike-riding maniac messengers who were whizzing by. He had not noticed that it had been a pause in traffic, not a light change, that had prompted my move.
Jumping to an erroneous conclusion, as so many of his ilk are wont to do, he immediately condemned the liberals who had stupidly timed the light so that it was impossible to cross the whole avenue in one change of the light. I reminded him that our mayor is a Republican, but he didn't pause. That's what liberals do, he explained, they do any God Damned thing they feel like that they want. Especially if it's going to cause regular people problems. Because the liberals never want to do anything that is Good - they are only attracted to things that are Evil. Liberals just want to ruin everything.
At first, I was tempted to argue, but I thought a little restraint might be in order. Still, the encounter left me with a few unanswered questions that plague my pedestrian mind: Does anyone know if Jeff Goldstein has a brother in New York? Or does JLo have a boyfriend here? (I did run into this guy at a corner...)
I'm just glad that we don't have a government that demonizes it's opposition, and that we elected a uniter not a divider.