One day, probably two years ago now, I had a devil of a time getting out of Manhattan because traffic across the island was 
obstructed by the Pakistan Day Parade. Apparently, this parade has been an annual event for the last twenty-five years. I had never heard of it before, as it gets much less press than the annual Puerto Rican and Irish parades. Regardless, the Pakistan Day Parade is now an institution in New York City and no one seems to mind aside from the hassle that all such parades present for crosstown traffic.
Maybe I just take things a bit personally since I consider New York City to be my hometown (having grown up in its media market), but otherness is celebrated in the Big Apple, not demonized. Two of New York’s most enduring symbols are the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, both of which point to the generations of unwashed immigrants who have come to our shores and peopled our country. One of my great-grandfathers came to Ellis Island from northern Italy and signed his name with an ‘x’ because he was illiterate. They asked him the name of his hometown and used that for his new surname. I doubt that he spoke a lick of English and he wasn’t a Protestant like most of the people then living in this country. I have other ancestors that came on the Mayflower, so how much of me is a ‘Real American’?
The Republicans must stop setting Americans against each other. New Yorkers are proud of their diversity and their tolerance, but take a look at what’s happening in Gotham now:
That’s not New York. That’s the opposite of New York
