"If you're appalled by Trump, it's obvious; If you're for Trump, you're outraged every day at the elites who won't accept it," Simon Wilson writes in an article about his visit to the US. Photo / AP
"If you're appalled by Trump, it's obvious; If you're for Trump, you're outraged every day at the elites who won't accept it," Simon Wilson writes in an article about his visit to the US. Photo / AP
Editorial
EDITORIAL:
Today's feature story by Simon Wilson, "Two weeks in Trump's America", offers an alternately amusing, reassuring, poignant and unsettling view of the US of A.
Wilson acknowledges he was only there for a short time, and only visited Chicago and New York, but the experience offered awindow into a world many of us on this side of it view with increasing fascination and horror in equal measure.
Wilson writes about the frustration of arriving off a long-haul flight into a snowy Chicago and waiting for a ride-share car that never comes and wondering what kind of First World Country it is (Auckland transport woes, anyone?).
He is saddened by the fact "every street corner in downtown Chicago has an elderly African-American, a veteran, begging on it" but pleasantly surprised by the in-your-face friendliness of New York - a place where fear once reigned supreme. Even bus drivers were like "care workers" in their attention to passengers' needs, he writes.
Certainly, anyone who has visited the Big Apple in recent years will recognise this aspect. Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg was instrumental in driving policies - albeit often controversial ones - that led to a safer, healthier and revitalised city. As a visitor, it is surprising and reassuring to know that such a big, bold, brash city can have, at its heart, well ... heart.
Simon Wilson says it is impossible not to be moved by the 9/11 memorial site in New York. Photo / Simon Wilson
And, of course, at the heart of the conversation, as well as everything that is unspoken, is one Donald J Trump.
"For all Americans, everything has gone wrong. If you're appalled by Trump, it's obvious: your bustling, high-minded democracy has become a sinister parody of itself and made you the laughing stock of the world. If you're for Trump, you're outraged every day at the elites who won't accept it and want to take you down. If you don't care, your world has been filled with the bile and brutality of everyone who does. They are the only news. They are the only reality," Wilson writes.
Some of Wilson's most sobering comments are about the vastly differing perspectives and analysis of the main news media channels. "Following the news is like being in two parallel universes," he says.
Racism is still alive and kicking - and visible on prime time TV. The issue of immigration is to the fore - in reality and on stage. In fact, Broadway shows - from Network to Frozen to Hamilton - offer "a great window on to America". And although "we know now that American democracy is rubbish in every formal sense ... the life of it still seethes in the culture", he writes.
He finds gleaming towers and shopping malls are omnipresent; excess and commerce are the American way: bigger, brighter, better, always.
The High Line in New York ... spoilt by the tourists, says Simon Wilson. Photo / Simon Wilson
However, there are impressive green spaces and environmental projects, too, such as the High Line in New York, but Wilson finds them soiled by the sheer number of those using them.
He says everything from art exhibitions to monuments and museums are politically charged: from Chicago's Birmingham Project, to what he describes as the deeply affecting 9/11 memorial in New York, at the site of the fallen Twin Towers.
Wilson's article is likely to resonate with many who have visited the US. He writes powerfully about the love and the current confusion and despair. They are haunting words: "I honestly do love America. The toe-tapping, hip-grinding, soul-melting culture. The intellectual exuberance, all the good their belief in opportunity brings. But something's gone wrong."
