JANUARY 6, 2009 --
The newsstand on the east side of Broadway, between 47th and 48th Streets had no customers when LPR walked by, at about 9:30 p.m. New Year’s Eve.
It was a cold evening in Manhattan, but the 19 degree temperature didn’t keep people indoors.. There were plenty of people in the area, but most were confined to pens, some of them since mid-day, and could not have gotten to the vendor without some form of credentials recognized by the police.
In spite of the confinement, that held thousands of people in one spot for hours, there was no grumbling. A great many in the crowd had their faces covered for protection against the cold.
Most, whose faces were visible, were smiling, as they waited for the ball to drop on a Times Square building, with the number 2009 lighted up when the ball completed its run. Indeed, were it not for the smiling faces, a visitor might have thought that people were being rounded up in a dictatorship.
The photographs on this posting of LPR were taken the three hours between 9:30 p.m. (of 2008) and 12:30 a.m. (of 2009) as 2008 departed leaving in its place 2009.
LPR was not sorry to see the year 2008 depart (and has a hunch a lot of other people feel the same way about 2008). Now if the spirit of camaraderie that filled the cold, Times Square air New Year’s Eve were to continue, LPR thinks that the problems that seemed insurmountable in 2008 will be resolved in 2009 to the benefit of the country.
To feel the warm, glowing spirit of the crowd on a cold evening in Times Square, a visitor likely would not have thought that the country has serious economic and financial problems, that many people are fearful of losing jobs and home.
Indeed, for LPR the spirit was one of happiness, happiness at being in America where liberty includes the capacity to learn from the mistakes of the past, and the freedom to correct mistakes (however well-intentioned) of government of government officials.
Near the close of the 19th century an observer from England was impressed with the commitment of the American people to equality. LPR senses a continued commitment to equality and freedom in the faces of the people in the photographs posted here.
The faces (at least those not covered against the cold) do not indicate anxiety, do not indicate pessimism, do not indicate the economic and financial fears one might expect from media accounts of the present state of the union.
The faces in these photographs indicate that America is a “can do” country, not a “will not” land. Even the news vendor without customers can be seen smiling.
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One thing we should have learned from 2008 is that the predictions, the expectations of “experts” are not direct lines to future reality. Where are the experts who predicted gas at $5 a gallon.
LPR suggests that one definition of “expert” might be: an individual who persuades the media that he has an operative crystal ball, gets called regularly for his analyses, and makes a very comfortable living from his “expertise.” It is, after all, the media that brings those given the title “expert” to public notice.
LPR notes that by conferring upon individuals the title of “expert” the media can avoid time-consuming research. Once again, where are the “experts” who predicted oil will reach “$200” a barrel.
LPR is no expert, but does have the sense that a person who deals ably with the present , and learns from the past makes the future truly promising – not a timeframe to fear.
Theodore Roosevelt gave a short inaugural address after being elected to a full term as president and demonstrated that the insight expressed in a speech is not a function of its length. Consider, please, these words from T. R. --
“We know that self-government is difficult. But we have faith that we shall not prove false to the memories of the men of the mighty past. [W]e must show, not merely in great crises, but in the everyday affairs of life, the qualities of practical intelligence, of courage, of hardihood, and endurance, and above all the power of devotion to a lofty ideal, which made great the men who founded this Republic, in the days of Washington, which made great the men who preserved this Republic in the days of Abraham Lincoln.”
(Fellow Citizens, Robert V. Remini and Terry Golway, editors, pp 264-5. Penguin paperback.)
May 2009 be much better than 2008 for us, a year we shall be sorry to leave, until we realize that, with God’s help, we can make 2010 even better.
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