First off, I want to thank those of you who have taken the time and had the heart and written to the mayor of New York City and asked him to withdraw his bill to ban the New York Carriage Horses and to remind him his actions have not been progressive, as he claims to be. I am told by a person very close to the situation in New York that the messages have been many, and are timely and helpful and are very much being read and felt. For those who have not yet written, the address is Mayor Bill deBlasio, New York City Hall, City Hall Park, N.Y., N.Y., 10007. This is a critical time, and there is much at stake. The future of animals in our world, respecting Mother Earth, the lives and well being of the carriage horses, the jobs and way of life of hundreds of people and their families, a chance to turn back the impulses of the ignorant, the wealthy and politically connected, and the angry. Finally, the mayor may be listening. This, it turns out, is his Achilles heel, not what his own working citizens like the carriage drivers think of him, but what people all over the country that he hopes to impress for the future think of him.
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The New York Carriage Horse controversy is a Devil’s Brew, culturally and politically. It is the unnecessary controversy, there is no reason for it to exist at all, but it does, and it has been long, cruel and an expensive distraction to the taxpayers and residents of New York, who have so many real issues and concerns to address, and to the lives of the good and hard-working people in the carriage trade.
It looks as if the horses will not be banned from the city this year, the next battle is to stop the harassment and intimidation visited almost daily upon the people who work with them.
This morning, the horses woke me up again in the middle of the night, they do not care if I sleep. There is a mysterious alchemy to the horses messages, they come not in words, but in impulses and feelings, ideas start bubbling around in my head and I have to go and write them down.
I started wondering again, and not for the first time, what the carriage horse controversy in New York City would be like if the city had elected a mayor who was progressive in his political and humanistic thinking. It is a fantasy, really, the people in the carriage trade have known a much harsher and unforgiving reality. It is a sad thing, it could have been so different.
If the mayor of New York was a progressive:
– He might have called the animal rights activists and the representatives of the carriage trade into his office and said, look, let’s talk to each other and see what the problems are, and figure out ways to address them. I am not going to put hundreds of people out of work without cause, I am not abolishing a historic industry that makes a lot of money for the city and is beloved by visitors, tourists, children and many others, I am not putting the horses at risk in order to save them. If you refuse to talk to one another, then I will appoint a commission of object and reputable people – behaviorists, animal welfare advocates, veterinarians, city residents, tourists, children, business people – and we will turn the issue over to them to resolve. I will abide by their recommendations. No name calling, no harassment, no wild accusations of cruelty and abuse. That is not the issue.
– Since he and his aides meet and lunch and confer weekly, sometimes daily, with the animal rights activists and their lobbyists and leaders, he would, if he were a progressive, want to give equal time to the people in the carriage trade – to those the most affected by his proposed ban. And to those many people, in New York – 64 per cent of the residents – and all over the world who support them. He would have met with them at least once by now, hopefully more than that. He would have visited the stables, talked to the drivers, expressed concern about their families, their future, their mortgages and college tuitions for their children. He would have looked at the horses, asked the drivers how they feel about their work, what options they might consider if it came to that. He would never decide that they would be just as happy driving green taxis in the outer boroughs and try and force them to do that.
He would want to know. There are good progressives and good conservatives, almost all of the good ones care about people. In politics, to be progressive means to be especially concerned about the poor and the working class, to support, not to exclude people who do not have lots of money and cannot whisper in the ears of the rich and the powerful. If the mayor of New York City were a progressive political leader, he would be happy to meet with everyone, to draw in all points of view and make his own best judgments.
– He would, by definition, believe in the notion of equal justice and equal process under the law. A carriage driver has as much right to meet with the mayor and his aides, to be heard, to be considered, as a milionaire. A tourist, a lover, a child, an animal lover, a veterinarian, has as much right to be heard as animal rights advocates or people shouting obscenities and waving cards and placards. A progressive mayor – think of LaGuardia, is beloved by the people. He speaks to them and for them, he believes in talking and listening to people, progressive mayors believe they represent all of the people, not just the people who contribute to their political campaigns.
– He (or she) would not participate in the dehumanizing of the people in the carriage trade, the debasing descriptions of them as “random people,” as thieves and alcoholics, as abusers of animals. A progressive mayor would seek to humanize them, progressivism advocates the elevation of human beings, not their debasement and diminishment.
– He would seek to help the horses, rather than simply ban them and their industry without even considering one other option. He would order special traffic lines for the horses during the hours they travel to and from the great park. This would only involve a few streets, would cost little or nothing, and would obviate any concern about the safety of the horses as they travel to and from their work. Anyone who loves animals and is concerned for their rights or well-being would want them to have the same rights as bicyclists, joggers, taxis. If the mayor believes, as some of his supporters do, that animals ought to have the rights of human beings, then start making history and give them some right there in New York. A progressive might agree that carriage horses have the same rights as bicyclists. The horses were here first, they give great pleasure to many people.
– Progressives invariably accept the reality of climate change and a need to acknowledge the challenge of saving the earth. He might respect the environment by honoring the designers and users and advocates for Central Park and keeping the horses there. The park was designed for them, it would be yet another environmental crime to take the horses away and replace them with automobiles. In his encyclical released last week, Pope Francis called for a dialogue about the future of the earth, about the environment, about ways to keep the animals present and among us and safe and in our world. The horses are the last domesticated animals left in New York City, by all reputable and respected accounts, they are safe and well cared for there, and much loved. What a powerful progressive symbol to choose them over cars and condos and real estate developers and office towers.
New York has plenty of those, there are only 200 horses left. In 1900, 130,000 draft horses lived in Manhattan alone.
If New York City had a progressive mayor, he would almost certainly call for a dialogue about the future of animals in the city. The people in the carriage trade have said they would welcome such a dialogue. The people calling for a ban on the carriage trade refuse to visit the stables, talk to the owners or carriage drivers, or negotiate – just like the mayor. This long and grinding and destructive and expensive controversy over the horses could have been avoided by a progressive mayor, who could have chosen instead to talk and listen and make the lives of the horses even better and lead us all to a better understanding of the magnificent animals who remain in our everyday world.
Is there a true progressive in America who would prefer to be remembered for bringing more automobiles, big electric cars, to one of the world’s great parks and driving away the carriage horses the park was created to serve?
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Elitist or progressive. Citizens, decide for yourself.
The dictionary defines an elitist as a person or class of persons considered superior by themselves. Elitists cater to or associate with an elitist class, it’s ideologies or it’s institutions, a person professing membership in the upper echelons of society.
A progressive is define as one favoring or advocating progress, change, improvement or reform, especially in political matters, as in a progressive mayor. A progressive mayor seeks to make progress toward better conditions for ordinary people, employing or advocating more enlightened or liberal ideas, new or experimental methods for improving society and the lives of the poor and the working class.
So I would ask yourself, as I have asked myself, if it is progressive to destroy an entire industry whose people have committed no crimes, broken no laws, violated none of the hundreds of regulations that cover their work? It is progressive to meet regularly with the rich and the powerful and refuse to even once speak to the working class people whose lives are the most affected by your decisions. Is it progressive to align oneself with people who operate on the outermost fringe of public discourse and civil dialogue and who visit cruelty and abuse on law-abiding and hard working people who are innocent of any wrongdoing?
Last year, a carriage driver named Tommy Hennessey approached the mayor of New York at a public event. His eight-year-old son was with him. Hennessey asked the mayor why he was pursuing his ban on the carriage horses. Because, the mayor said, your work is immoral. He said this in front of Hennessey and his son, and then he turned his back and walked away, shielded by a wall of aides and bodyguards.
I was thinking this morning, when the horses woke me up, what a progressive mayor of New York might have said to Hennessey and his son. Perhaps he would have invited him to meet with him or one of his aides. Perhaps he would have taken down his name and number and arranged to speak with him later. Perhaps he would have said he was sorry about the ban and the discomfort it caused, that there were important issues relating to the care of the animals that needed to be discussed and resolved. Perhaps he would even have listened to him and asked him what was on his mind. As the mayor of the city, he might have said, you deserve to be heard. The mayor could have chosen to be a mediator, a healer, a peacemaker, rather than a disconnected and thoughtless ideologue. That is not progressivism by any definition I know of.
What a shame, really, that the mayor of New York is not a progressive, what a different controversy it might have been for the horses, what a great opportunity might have been seized upon to begin the dialogue Pope Francis urges us all to begin. For Tommy Hennessey, for his son, for the people of the carriage trade, for the carriage horses, for the people of New York, and for all of the animals in the world.
Great political leaders are visionaries, not tools only of the rich and the loud. This mayor insists he is a visionary, proclaims his progressivism all over the country and the world. Let’s make him prove it. I was happy to write him and urge him to awaken and be true to the things he claims he is. Mayor deBlasio, New York City Hall, City Hall Park, N.Y., N.Y., 10007.
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“Men who look upon themselves born to reign, and others to obey, soon grow insolent; selected from the rest of mankind their minds are early poisoned by importance; and the world they act in differs so materially from the world at large, that they have but little opportunity of knowing its true interests, and when they succeed to the government are frequently the most ignorant and unfit of any throughout the dominions.” — Thomas Paine