New York: Junction of Waterways Junction of Ideas Wrap-up

New York –Ticonderoga of the Hudson and the Atlantic- Center of the Quest for Human Rights.
New York, a city and state, holds our rich history and reveals a success story-our American Dream. New York is a ticonderoga, the Iroquois term meaning a junction of two waterways, of the Hudson River and the Atlantic Ocean, just as Ft. Ticonderoga was a junction of French Canada and British America. New York is also the junction of ideas about rights for everyone, be it immigrants, women, African Americans. The story of this connection defines rural and urban New York. Over time the many beautiful faces of New York changed and grew: Native Americans, Dutch, British, African, German, Irish, Polish, Russian, Italian, Chinese are all a piece of the New York story, a story of America.
New York City is the great platform for a diverse, eclectic, tolerant society. Indeed New York City is a microcosm of the world. It is a microcosm of harmony in diversity. It amazed me when Kenneth Jackson pointed out how large communities of Jews, Muslims, Christians and Buddhists all live here, in this city, in relative harmony. Why is that? Kenneth Jackson suggested that there simply isn’t enough time in the day to be intolerant of every group of people, because there are endless groups of people in New York. New York’s diversity lends to tolerance and makes an interesting case against homogenous cultures.
I believe this, but think there is another piece to this puzzle as well. Wealth. New York is rich. It is rich in culture, food, art, history, and of course it is the commerce capital of the world. The poorest tenement-housed New Yorker is/was better off than millions of people around the world. The ability to build wealth in this country, with this city as a jumping-off point, distinguishes New York from the intolerance faced by these same communities on their home turf. Poverty accentuates division, and in New York, people have always been stepping away from poverty and hopelessness as they assimilate into this new city, new country.
And yet New York City is deeply local, personal, a series of little neighborhoods that change from block to block and that retain the flavor of the countries of origin. That flavor, gives New York its freshness, its first generation mom and pop feel. This feeling seems to prevent New York from being homogenized into big box America. It is that uniqueness that draws millions to this city each year to experience the vitality of this city that constantly reinvents itself. It is easy to see why “I Love New York” is a timeless motto.
Conversely, the solitude and quiet beauty of New York outside the city compliments the hustle and bustle of the city. Stepping off the bus to visit Teddy Roosevelt’s home was a refreshing breath of air. The stillness, the shady front porch with rocking chairs welcomed us to an entirely different piece of New York. It was here the Theodore Roosevelt replenished his soul, and so did we. It was easy to see him playing on the long sweeping lawn with his six children. This was a home, a summer White House, but first a home. That love and joy resonates at Oyster Bay still today. As we wound our way through the vast areas of Upstate New York, we could see the role the Hudson River played in its development. This river, was the critical link that the British needed to sieze control of in order to cut off New England during the American Revolution. This river, if linked with the St. Lawrence River, could mean the end to America’s short life, and yet at places like Saratoga and even West Point, the river was blocked and Britain never did accomplish its sweep down from Canada. In later years the Hudson River, when connected by the Erie Canal to the interior, served as a conduit of commerce that became a new lifeline for New York City. The cost of trade dropped 95% when the canal was in place.
The Erie Canal as an internal improvement, became a stunning economic victory for New York. And yet, what was being traded? Cotton. This raw material, sailed up from the South and sent out to textile factories in Britain, would force this country to face its moral and economic challenge-slavery. New York outlawed slavery in 1827, yet slave-picked cotton in the South was still its lifeblood. This contradiction would continue to pull at New York throughout the Second Great Awakening when the abolitionist movement organized. The burnt out district in New York would see the beginnings of greater organization and both the abolitionist and the women’s suffrage movements would have strong connections in New York, where Harriet Tubman, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Frederick Douglass, William Seward converged and variously exchanged ideas, hosted stops on the underground railroad, refused to wear cotton, and worked toward expanding suffrage. This quest for human rights would be picked up by Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. Franklin created the United Nations at the end of WWII and Eleanor created the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to triumph social justice. Indeed, New York is a critical junction in the quest for human rights.
New York is a collection of New Yorks. It is food, entertainment, transportation, commerce, history, art and the struggle for right for all to enjoy the opportunities presented. New York is a window into America, a passageway, a city and a state which anchors our nation and indeed is a story of the junction of two waterways, a Ticonderoga, and the junction of ideals for a greater world where all people can thrive no matter their nationality, religion, gender or race.

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