It seems like there's always bad news in New York: manufacturing in the state sucks, the press corps in Albany is VERY CONSERVATIVE, our sports teams suck (unless you're the Yankees or are a football team that actually plays in New Jersey). So yes, New Yorkers have become VERY accustomed to cynicism. But yesterday was a great day for Upstate New York. The Bills beat the Panthers and the Sabres beat the Habs, in overtime. And a girl from Syracuse won the title of Miss America. Nina Davuluri, your city and state are proud of your hard work, and even moreso by breaking barriers while doing it. This year I think is the year that beauty pageants, thought of as dead, made a comeback, and part of that has to do with diversity. It's no longer a country club. And it seems that even if you are different, as long as you're Miss America material, you're in.
New York has now joined Oklahoma and Mississippi as the only states that have won back-to-back Miss America competitions. But not everyone is happy: Twitter became a madhouse of hatred and racism. It even made the news in Canada. And how can picking a native New Yorker be an insult to those who died on 9-11? It shows that New York instills good values and beliefs in its natives, that New York is a global American state, that it's borders are much larger than they appear. There's one nice thing about Twitter: it exposes people's true colors. Can't beat that, right?
It seems that America has A LOT of emotional growing up left to do. I hope the tragic events of that Tuesday morning in 2001 did not cause America to emotionally snap. I'd tell Nina to stand tall through this: ignorance is sadly part of the American tradition. If it had been me on that stage (of course, as Alexandra Ivanoff and not Alexander Ivanoff!) winning for New York they'd say the judges wanted to make a statement for those with developmental disabilities and that a "retard" shouldn't be Miss America. And someone who is Russian: we still see those from Eastern Europe as a bunch of "pinko commies." Why do people hate diversity? What's wrong with being different? We can't help who we are, just like I can't help being autistic. It's just how I was born.
Not that everyone understands how bad things have been in New York (dysfunctional government, poor job growth), but it's excused. We as a state have had a rocky last few years and we can use all the good news we can get. And yesterday, we got three pieces of great news.
*Also, Miss America and Miss USA are totally different ballgames. There's none of this, this, and that.
**Let's go easy on Carrie Prejean. It wasn't that she gave a poorly delivered answer on marriage equality, it's moreso the response itself.
***How about a pageant for geeks! There's enough hot girls out there who know more math than I will ever do and can do computer programming, etc.
****Also, Miss Kansas, Theresa Vail, who not only is serving our country in the armed forces AND has two tattoos, is managing to learn to fly (I want someone to verify that for me). Aviation needs all the women it can get.
*****This is as perfect as this entry will be, and I still want to write more.
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