My father grew up in Manhattan, and the majority of my family is spread across the boroughs. We visit often. The older I get, the less time I spend taking photos and more time observing the people around me. With an estimated 8.3 million human beings in the city on any given day, it may seem redundant for me to mention that this city is prime for people watching. The greatest eye-opening experiences I have had in the city, in regards to the diversity of the people, came this summer as I sat in the backseat of a cab and listened, on two separate occasions, to the conversations my mother and father held with our cab driver.
As my mother rushed to 42nd and 5th to meet us for a show, she spoke with an Egyptian man. He told my mother that the Muslim brotherhood was a small majority in Egypt, according to his estimates, a mere 2%. He told her the vast majority of the people in his home country just wanted peace. At the same time this conversation took place, I looked out my window in the back of the cab at Times Square and among the men dressed up as Spiderman and Buzz Lightyear stood several SWAT team members, fully dressed in protective gear, carrying guns greater than half my size. We happened to visit the city this summer the same time the U.S. intercepted electronic communication from Al Qaeda and embassies were evacuated across the Mideast. The country was on alert. The immediate juxtaposition of this man’s words of peace and the sudden scene before me made me shiver.
Next, my father spoke to a Muslim cab driver. This man told my father he liked America because here, he could be free. He said, “I don’t have to look over my shoulder here, to see if someone is following me.” As the U.S. awaits a decision of action towards Syria and the killings in Egypt continue, I remain grateful for my freedom and protection in my country. Yet small realities are becoming all too real, and listening to men speak of terrors that have entered their own lives, I grow weary. For that small moment when I looked out the window of the cab and saw Buzz Lightyear and Spiderman, I did not think twice when I saw a man with a gun. I thought, “another costume.”
When I realized I was wrong, I came to a conclusion that should have come sooner- things are changing.
Julie Conlon can be contacted at jconlon@keene-equinox.com