[Texasforever]

A bit too analytical but a good piece. IMO it just boils down to "grace under fire". The City of New York and it people showed that grace in spades. That is admired no matter what region of the country it comes from.

[austinTparty]

Houstonians Austinites, for some reason, don't have as bad a case of what the Australians call "cultural cringe": On the rare occasions when they think of New Yorkers at all, they're likely to feel sorry for them because they're not Texans.

Hehe ping... ;-)

[roachie]

Hank Jr said it best when he sang in America Will Survive: "There's no more Yankees and Rebels this time, just one united people that stand behind America, can survive." I agree with that sentiment.

[eddie willers]

Great post.
I've only been to NYC once in my adult life. Parked at the Port Authority, rode downtown to an old pub. (6th Street?.....McSorely's?) and found the people to be warm and friendly.

The author is right.
Its the "TV" New York we don't like.
The real one's OK.

[Clemenza]

Very good. It has never ceased to amaze me how so many lower middle class Italian and Irish-Americans in the New York area look down on southerner and think "all of youse tawk stoopid."

Let's also not forget that the south is ahead of much of the north on racial issues. I have never been to a place as segregated as the Long Island of my youth.

[x]

I wonder whether Reed recognizes that he's staked way too much on the North-South distinction. Pretty much everything that he's said about New York and the South could be said about New York and Wisconsin, New York and Nebraska, or New York and Montana.

If you want to be a cosmopolitan you have to find a cosmopolis to identify with. If you want to be a provincial you have to identify with your province. But it's "provinciality" itself that's important, not the particular region or locality. It's not as though rural North Carolina, rural Ohio or rural Louisiana and rural Oregon are at daggers drawn. Or as thought there is some uniquely Southern or Western essence that distinguishes them from other country people. I don't use "provinciality" in a bad sense either. There's much of value in provincialism.

Probably, the broader point about 9/11 isn't just that a Carolinian might feel something in common with New Yorkers of the outer boroughs. I doubt this is something new for Reed. If it is, I'd worry about him and ignore his article. The broader point is that American provincials and cosmopolitans are finding that they may have things of value in common across the cultural divide. It won't last, but it is something to bear in mind.

[AnnaZ]

A (Southern) FReeper (don't recall who) put it rather perfectly shortly after 9/11: "They may be Yankees, but they're our Yankees."

I loved that.

[happygrl]

A great piece of writing.