It’s easy to understand why Ted Cruz takes issue with “New York values,” as he did on national television during the latest Republican presidential debate.
Those values he eschews are in direct contradiction to his own in many ways.
Our values are not superficially rooted in political issues such as same-sex marriage and abortion, as Cruz would like everyone to believe. New York values — one in the same as Queens values — are rooted in something far greater than politics.
How fast Cruz forgets how this city rallied after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, when terrorists knocked down our World Trade Center. People from across the five boroughs came together to pick up the pieces beginning that very night — firefighters alongside police officers, iron workers, EMTs, electricians, other tradesmen and volunteers.
How fast Cruz forgets Hurricane Sandy in 2012, and the way Queens residents joined the city in collecting everything it could to help the worst victims of the storm in the Rockaways, Brooklyn and Staten Island.
How fast Cruz forgets New York’s history as a mini-America, a beacon of the free world for hundreds of years drawing people from all places across the globe, many of whom live side-by-side in sometimes cramped quarters building a better life for themselves and their families.
New York values are rooted in humanity, courage, sacrifice, resolve, compassion and patriotism, which is more than we can say about the values of some third-rate politician willing to say and do anything to acquire power.
