August 27, 2004

IT'S HEEEERE!

The dreaded Republican Convention is now upon us. While not officially starting until Monday, the ramifications are arriving.

Street closings planned for later have been implemented earlier. It?s more complicated than expected to build the security checkpoints.

At Penn Station there is a steady stream of people departing, pulling their wheeled suitcases behind them. It is the lead story in New York - the exodus of New Yorkers. One woman turned to the camera and said succinctly when asked why she was leaving: too many Republicans!

I squeezed in several meetings this week because there were people who wanted to see me before they fled. The Creative Director of Betelgeuse, one of my clients, slipped away last night to his home at Montauk where he will stay for the next week. Another friend was packing up to go to his upstate house in Sullivan County.

Monday will find me in Washington, D.C. on business. Getting there required a very complicated logistical plan. I will come and go from Albany in order to avoid as much New York mayhem as I can.

There has been a sense all week that the town is thinning out. And those who are staying are getting very, very "stiff upper lippish" about remaining. I would go if I could but I can't so I will make the best of it.

Dinner conversation is occasionally centered on the methodologies that will be employed by the remaining to navigate the city. "I will find a way to not go west of 5th Avenue." "I am working from home." "I'm going to see how bad it is at Penn and then, if it's too bad, figure out another way to work."

The most stoic of all New Yorkers are the ones whose trains come into Penn Station, which sits directly below Madison Square Garden and thus, the Republican Convention. They are bracing for anything, everything and then some. For a week now, Penn has been crawling with police and soldiers while concrete barriers are being erected everywhere.

Around Penn Station there is a zone that is being locked down, closed off, guarded to the max, defended as if it were a city under siege.

"The Frozen Zone" or "The Lock Down Zone" is becoming a subject of both jokes and apprehension, with the joking probably fueled by the apprehension.

"If I laugh at any mortal thing, tis that I may not weep." Lord Byron.

So we're laughing so we don't weep.

The protests have begun, which are giving us good reason to laugh because, they are, like the city itself, outrageous. Yesterday, twelve men stretched themselves across 10th Avenue and then removed their clothes, their bare skin marked with the words: Stop AIDS. They wanted New York to see the naked truth regarding the disease.

It was all Mayor Bloomberg could do to prevent himself from losing control in laughter when asked about it at a press conference. "It's New York! Of course there are naked men on 10th Avenue!"

But despite laughter generated by naked men, the New York Times CBS Poll reveals that 53% of New Yorkers are very or somewhat worried that a terrorist attack will take place.

Looking deeper into the same poll, I discovered that nearly 50% of New Yorkers are thinking of living elsewhere in the next five years. And that 50% seems to be motivated by fear. Nearly 70% of those polled support Kerry/Edwards and 80% are paying at least some attention to this year?s political campaign. And, if I read all of this correctly, more people are going to be voting this year than in previous elections ? a good sign, I think, for a democracy.

It is what democracy means: having the right to vote; that we, collectively, decide our direction.

A friend just returned from Europe. His feeling is that we have had a "pass" the past four years because of the nature of the last Presidential election. But if we freely and clearly re-elect George W. Bush to the Presidency we might all want to think about putting Canadian flags on our luggage and jackets to avoid being stoned abroad.

At a party this week, I realized I was close to envy speaking with Robin, who is our Development Editor. He sports citizenship in three countries due to the international nature of his upbringing. He is American, German and Swiss. And, damn the boy, he speaks five languages! He can get through just about anything - and anywhere.

But for the rest of us who hold only one passport, we are faced with one of, if not the most important electoral decisions of our lives.