MARKET WATCH COLUMNIST
“Like NY, Boston won’t cower to terrorism”, Ellis Henican Column, Newsday, April 21 2013
Boston is learning nicely. But we’re the ones who wrote the rules on responding to one of these attacks.
Taking the terror out of terrorism. Refusing to give the killers what they’re desperate for. Holding on to the values, the justice and the decency that make us better than our enemies.
New York didn’t sort all that out immediately. We gasped a few times, buying two wars and a Patriot Act.
But in the 11 1/2 years since the World Trade Center attacks, we have come to understand a few things:
The rule of law is at the core of being American. Judging people by race or religion gets us nowhere. High-priced high-security measures can keep us only so secure.
And now Boston is following our lead.
We win these battles in the end by living the lives we intended to.
We don’t cower. We don’t bend. We don’t become them.
THEY WIN IF. . .
1. We let ’em scare us.
2. We cower at home on the couch.
3. We don’t travel, race or work in tall buildings.
4. We don’t party loud and late.
5. If we don’t do all those crazy fun things we might not have done in the first place just to let the terrorists know they won’t ever win — so there!
THE NEWS IN SONG
You learn to live again
Foo Fighters
“Times Like These”
tinyurl.com/footimes
ASKED AND UNANSWERED
Is Illegal Reptile Amnesty Day limited to actual reptiles? Or can Suffolk residents also turn in their scaly, hissing, potentially poisonous politicians on Saturday at the SPCA — no questions asked? . . . Is Huntington really about to trade the stagecoach-era metal cash box at the LIRR parking lot for ne
wfangled MuniMeters? What’s next, phasing out the horses’ water trough? . . . Did Stony Brook sociology prof Arnout van de Rijt just get 15 minutes of fame for announcing “fame isn’t fleeting” anymore? . . . More Sunday bus services in Suffolk? You mean people ride the bus on Sunday? Legis. Jay Schneiderman thinks they might . . . By what logic does Westhampton Beach Village Attorney Richard Haefeli believe an audit of village finances is not a public document? Put state open-government director Robert Freeman in the release-it camp . . . Why should senior Intel kids have all the fun? High school underclassmen, even middle-schoolers, will be full participants in the first Science and Engi
neering Fair on May 18 at the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Garden City . . . Forty feet? Fifty feet? How high is too high at Hauppauge Industrial Park? Did Smithtown Supervisor Pat Vecchio just promise the sky (or part of it) to spur development — and taxes? . . . What’s next for journalism in a 140-character world? Brainiacs from Tumblr, Constant Contact, Sawhorse Media, LI Press and WNYC’s New Tech City will explain it all to me Wednesday, 6:30 p.m., at LIU Post’s Theatre at Hillwood Commons. You should come. That way, we can all find out together.
LONG ISLANDER OF THE WEEK
EILEEN AULD
Sandy didn’t discriminate. The superstorm slammed areas rich and poor. But recovery has been so much slower for people 
without the capital to quickly rebuild. Eileen Auld has a mouthful of a corporate title. She is Citibank’s tri-state regional director for Citi Community Development. But living in Forest Hills with a summer cottage in Breezy Point, she’s also seen and felt Sandy’s wrath. Since the storm, she’s helped deploy more than 1 million rebuilding dollars in “underserved communities,” backed groups such as the Long Island Housing Partnership, driven customers back to small businesses and coordinated with local governments. The point of it all? “Making a positive impact among those who have lost so much and helping the region bounce back stronger than ever.”
E-mail ellis@henican.com
Follow him at twitter.com/henican
Related posts
