Fifteen years ago the flow of foreign visitors didn’t stop.
In fact, in seeming solidarity toward us New Yorkers in shock over the
unspeakable Twin Towers attack, a vast majority of people didn’t cancel their
travel plans to the US because of security concerns. They came to show their
support. So that, as we said at the time, we would not let the terrorists
win.
Today I feel a similar sense of shock, a numbing flashback.
Never has a presidential candidate seemed so at home with sexist and racist
language, bullying, and encouraging the same, if not worse, from his
supporters. What’s more horrifying, the ugly tactics have paid off. That candidate, after the results of Tuesday’s
vote, is now president-elect. He will be inaugurated in January.
My simple plea? Foreign visitors, don’t cancel your travel
plans to America in protest of this vote that appears to speak to the worst side
of human nature. Now, more than ever, those of us who lived through the
nightmare of US Vote 2016 – so damn similar to a terrorist attack on our very
moral soul – need your support.
Don’t cancel your plans. Come to America. Like beloved Yogi
Berra famously said, it is Déjà vu all over again. We need to see the
compassion and intelligent understanding in your eyes just like we did in 2001.
Next: Running for
Your Life: Leaf It to Me
