DAY FIFTY FIVE:Nov. 4:
There was a mood of dejection in Mudville this morning."Fifteen, Man. They scored f&^&ing FIFTEEN before the seventh inning, Man," a man exclaimed to his two partners in Red Hook today.
"Breaks my f&^$ing heart, Man. Breaks my f^$%ing heart," his shorter buddy said, shaking his head. And the trio solemnly stopped in their tracks, pondering the full weight of their Yankees' defeat last night in the Sixth game of the World Series.
In contrast to Saturday when there was a run on Yankees' accouterment at the official ClubHouse Store, today nary of Bronx Bombers hat or T-shirt was to be seen in Brooklyn or Manhattan. Fearing that too much bravado might jinx Jeter, Justice, Spencer, Martinez, Posada and Clemens New Yorkers painfully placed their ball caps and jackets aside in favor of more traditional autumn browns.
It was a gloriously beautiful autumn day, bathed in soft golden light and cool breezes. Thirty thousand people from all over the world braved the threat of terrorism, however remote it may have been, to queue up on the Verrazano Bridge for the New York City Marathon this morning. Some said they were running in memory of athletic friends or family that perished in the World Trade Center, and none could avoid seeing the much altered skyscape of the city each time they reached a high point on the 26-mile run.
And it was a spectacular Marathon, with new records set in both Men's and Women's divisions, and victory going soundly to the Horn of Africa. Ethiopian 25-year-old Tesfaye Jifar beat the Marathon record by 15 seconds. And Kenya's Margaret Okayo set a new record for female runners breezing to the finish line without an apparent care in the world.
There were cares in the city, of course. Mayor Giuliani's office received an anthrax-dosed package from, of all people, Tom Brokaw. It appears that despite several rounds of decontamination the NBC offices are still spore-infested with ample quantities to cross-contaminate outgoing mail.
Newsday's inveterate columnist Jimmy Breslin tells in today's paper of a hospital workers' union meeting convened to allay fears after the death of Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital employee Kathy Nguyen. One worker asked, "Is anthrax contagious," Breslin reports. When told it is not she turned to her co-worker and said, "Amtrak isn't contagious."
It would be funny, except these are employees of New York's hospitals, which are charged with diagnosing new diseases in our fair city before an epidemic unfolds.
Down on Ground Zero unsightly squabbling between cops and firefighters persisted today, with the NYPD announcing that it had reviewed videos of the Friday and Saturday melees and plans to arrest still more firefighters, primarily for assaulting police officers: No heroes in that fight.
There are no heroes in the city election fracas, either, with the vote just two days away and polls showing Bloomberg and Green running neck-and-neck. There is no doubt that Green's staff, in the final hours of the primary two weeks ago against Ferrer, did insinuate that voters ought to reject Puerto Rican Ferrer because investors would flee the city if he were Mayor. The implication was that Ferrer's Puerto Ricanism equaled poor management. While few dispassionate observers would credit Ferrer with strong management skills it would not be because of his Latino roots, but because he is a classic hack politicians who doles out deals to blocks of traditional Democratic power like candy tossed to hungry kids on Halloween. Nevertheless, Green is bucking a racism brand, and having a tough time wining confidence on the African American and Latino communities. While nobody in those communities can honestly say that Bloomberg holds promise of serving their needs, they are angrily willing to toss the city into the clutches of Mr. Corporation Man in order to flip the bird at the white, Jewish Democrat.
Bloomberg, meanwhile, has been revealed in recent days as a nasty individual who has condoned sexual harassment within his corporate empire and covered up rape. In the most egregious example, much-discussed in New York City media in recent days, a woman who was raped in the building by a Bloomberg executive filed charges and ended up receiving a payoff in return for her silence. When asked about the case by the Village Voice, Bloomberg said that he does not believe that rape has occurred unless there is an "unimpeachable third person eyewitness" available to corroborate the woman's story. Of course anybody who stood by, witnessed a rape and did not intervene or call the police would, legally, be guilty of aiding the assailant and therefore is highly unlikely to ever step forward to volunteer testimony. Even more ghastly, Bloomberg betrays in his comments that a woman's word will never, in his opinion, be taken more seriously than that of a man; therefore, no woman who claims to have been raped will be believed by Bloomberg unless police evidence fully supports her allegations. His is a position apparently consistent with American jurisprudence circa 1950.
This morning Newsday threw its editorial weight behind Green, while the Daily News and NY Post backed Bloomberg. Green also has the Times' support. Any way you cut it Tuesday's election will be a close, grim event.
On a long bike ride this afternoon I noticed that the reds, oranges, ochres and vermilions of autumn were suddenly much in evidence. It's a very late autumn, and many trees have yet to turn in their summer greens for final fits of psychedelic glory before falling to the ground. Along the harbor front the late afternoon sun cast long shadows and lit the waters with flickers of gold. Beautiful as it was there were few small craft sailing or motoring through the harbor. Instead, Coast Guard cutters patrolled the harbor, and police helicopters zigzagged their ways around the ocean entry to Gotham. Vigilance was obvious.
Now it is 11:15pm in New York, and the Yankees are holding onto a tenuous 2-1 lead over the Diamondbacks in bottom of the Ninth. Arizona has men on first and second and one out, Mariano Rivera is pitching his heart out, throwing against an angry Phoenix crowd. The tension is almost unbearable. And Womack hits a single, tying up the game, 2-2, and leaving men on second and third, in scoring position, with just one out. Phoenix is going crazy, the crowd waving their white pom-poms madly. (Pom-poms, at a baseball game?) Mariano hits batter Counsell and the bases are loaded. Luis Gonzalez comes to the plate.
OK, at this instant - 11:17pm - New York City has an enormous knot in its stomach.
POW! Gonzalez smashes one into center field, knocking in a run and the Diamondbacks have on the World Series.
Poor New York. No doubt they are cheering in Oakland and Seattle, feeling avenged by our defeat. But outside my window in Brooklyn silence has fallen over the city even as shouts of joy, fireworks and Queen's rendition of "We Are The Champions" reverberate in Phoenix. Rudy Guiliani's face, briefly glimpsed in the stands in Phoenix, says it all: a blow of candid sadness.
The white pom-poms are waving madly in Phoenix. Here in Brooklyn the blue glow of TVs is snapping off in windows as New Yorkers quietly head for bed, and try to imagine what might be the city's next noble goal and source of hope.
One thing is for sure: it won't be Tuesday's elections.
Be well. Stay safe. Stand defiant.
Laurie Garrett
