Today is Day 7--wild card day--of the "7 Days of Love" contest. Today, I would love to write a little bit about my birthplace, and favorite city in the world--New York City.
I wrote about NYC in my "Introduce Yourself" post, which I welcome you to read, along with the rest of my blog:
This is what I wrote about my childhood in New York City:
"As a kid, all of my classmates were from other parts of the world. I had a Chinese friend, an Iraqi one, a Korean, several Cubans. It took a few years of reflecting on my life to realize that this had a profound effect on me. I now realize that this cultivated a deep respect and appreciation for other cultures at a very young age."
I love New York because it is the most diverse city on Earth. I've traveled to a lot of places and I know that the meaning of being a "New Yorker", an American even, is one of a kind.
While abroad, I noticed that after a terrorist attack, or a crisis, the population of most countries splits up. For example, in Europe, if an immigrant--it doesn't matter if they are illegal or not--commits a heinous attack, the country splits up into two: the "kick out the immigrants, we should never have let them in" and the "we should open our borders to help people fleeing from poverty and oppression abroad, and it's racist to think otherwise."
This really doesn't happen in New York City or the United States. You may think otherwise, but it is not to the extent that I have ever seen anywhere else. September 11 is the most perfect example of this. After the attack, America united. We were all Americans.
Sure, we have a little bit of that splitting camps here in the United States, and yes, the trend is getting worse. This is worrisome and we have a duty, as individuals, to initiate a conversation with people that think this way and try to introduce them to a different way of thinking--one with compassion and empathy.
That compassion and empathy exists in New York City because every nationality is present. They all eat, sleep, work, and live next to each other. Jews and Muslims live together in peace in New York City, but not in the Middle East.
I love New York City because the city is proof that humans, no matter where they come from, can live together peacefully. This is something to celebrate.