Holland started this place -
not the country but the Dutch West Indies Company. It was all about business then - buy it, move it, package
it, sell it. It was all about closing the deal ... and it still is.
Screwing the other guy
started here in 1626 when the island sold for $24. The former owners were evicted and a little fortified
trading port was built on the south tip of Manhattan - with water on 3 sides,
and a wall across the back. Over
the next 350+ years the sides sprouted docks that import and export anything
that can be moved - and that wall became “The Street” - the capital of
capitalism.
Wall Street displays a 7000
pound bronze bull to symbolize this system of making money without actually making
anything. Rubbing his horns is
suppose to bring you stock market luck.
I wanted to kick his other end, but he is behind bars - fenced in under
24/7 police guard because protesters “might paint him.”
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| Caged Bull - BS |
In 1910, some stolen military
explosives damaged the Statue of Liberty’s arm - it is still closed. Wall street was cart-bombed in 1920 -
now it is a walk street.
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| WTC Memorial Park |
The former site of the World
Trade Center is likewise fenced behind airport level security. The two stone-lined sunken fountains
representing the twin towers, are even less fragile than the bronze bull - yet
100 cops have been assigned to just stand around there, day and night.
The sign says, “We will never
forget.” In 1898 it said,
“Remember the Maine.” But who still recalls the bombing of the LA Times in
1910, the UN in ‘48; the Olympic Park in ’96 - Lebanon barracks, OK City, even
Pearl Harbor - and all the rest?
How much do we fence in and for what? The new WTC fountains were flooded by rising seawater during super-storm Sandy. Do we overreact to the terror-du-jour,
build and guard monuments to the past - while ignoring the future? While the deals go on, I wonder who is getting screwed this time.
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| Everything made elsewhere |
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