In complimenting Mayor Bloomberg's wise statement of toleration for a proposed mosque in lower Manhattan, I noted that this moment made New York seem wholly "American." Tim Heffernan, proud New Yorker, writes to set me straight:
Just a point of order: We like to measure America by its relative New Yorkness. Yougottaproblemwitdat?
Joking aside, though, I have felt for awhile that New York under Bloomberg has approached some sort of American ideal. Culturally libertarian, fiscally prudent, entrepreneurial to the Nth, and, yes, genuinely tolerant in the adult "that's life" way rather than the treacly "we are all one" way lip-serviced by patriotic scoundrels left and right. The Cordoba House affair just encapsulates the difference between our America and much of the rest of it. We got hit on 9/11. And we did not let it change us. I can't say that for the rest of the country.
True enough. For the moment, I heart NY.
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James Fallows is a staff writer for The Atlantic and has written for the magazine since the late 1970s. He has reported extensively from outside the United States and once worked as President Carter's chief speechwriter. He and his wife, Deborah Fallows, are the authors of the 2018 book Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey Into the Heart of America, which was a national best seller and is the basis of a forthcoming HBO documentary.