With the RNC beginning on the 30th in New York City, even before the events get underway, I think I’ll kick things off with a question. Does the Bush campaign’s use of New York City as a political strategy piece amount to exploitation?
If you’re like me, you didn’t know anyone who died in the September 11 tragedy. For us, 9/11 was something that affected our country, but happened to other people. We see 9/11 as history, something that happened in the past and far away, and we remember it because it’s important, not because it was personal.
This is certainly not the case for New Yorkers who survived that day and lost friends and loved ones: these people are still living with the very real memory of 9/11. They are aware of where the threat level is for their city, what the color alerts mean, and what security measures are in place. For them 9/11 is not history, it is their personal reality – past and present.
A co-worker of mine brought these feelings to my attention, and I was surprised. The friends she has in New York do not appreciate Bush and the Republican Convention using their personal tragedy as a political talking point, and as the justification for a war and policies in which they do not believe. The state is a bastion of the Democratic Party and the city itself is exceedingly diverse, a characteristic it does not share with the GOP. My guess is that there are more than a few New Yorkers that despise the Convention’s choice of city.
To someone like this in New York, it’s as if Bush and his supporters were saying: “I’m going to adopt your personal tragedy as my own, and use it to support my own interests.” I can understand how this would be upsetting.
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