A Tale of Two Celebrations

“We reflect all our fans and their lifestyles, and what it takes to make it in New York City.”

-Karl-Anthony Towns, New York Knicks

“Michelle Obama is a man. Am I right, America?”

-Jos Hokit, UFC cagefighter

Saturday night Peg and I stayed up very late to watch one of the more dramatic sports moments in my lifetime, as the Knickerbockers claimed their first NBA title in 53 years. We're not basketball people, but it was hard not to catch the bug living in Manhattan those four months, and leaving just after they'd dispatched the Cavs and headed to San Antonio to take on the Spurs in the finals.

The reaction in the City to the victory this weekend was pure joy.

In all five boroughs, including in Manhattan and our beloved Lower East Side and Greenwich Village, thousands of fans of all colors and genders poured into the streets. There are videos of entire city blocks filled to the brim with fans spontaneously singing Sinatra's New York, New York, in celebration. They played that at the end of my commencement last month. Peg cried. It sort of chokes you up when you've lived it.

The Knicks brought the most diverse city on earth together--gang bangers and screenwriters and the guys selling falafel on streetcorners, all in orange and blue and believing this miracle was possible. It has been almost spiritual, and I don't care a whit about basketball (well, maybe after this experience).

The next night, a few miles down the coast in Foggy Bottom, another celebration was taking shape.

Of all the vulgar spectacles one could conjure to make a complete mockery of our 250th anniversary, or Flag Day, or whatever national occasion we were marking, a cage fight on the front lawn of the People's House was simply beyond the pale.

All the usual suspects were there. Zuckerburg the oligarch. Stupid Media represented by Joe Rogan, the emcee of the event. The Speaker of the House, representing the Christian nationalists in this reproduction of the sort of bloodsport the emperor whose folks crucified our founding member would've recognized and appreciated. Dana White, the UFC guy who I guess would just stand for the sea of grift that surrounds this administration. And of course, the Grifter in Chief himself.

In the midst of all this came the above quote as Rogan put the microphone in front of one of the gladiators who'd just won his cage match. That incredibly racist, misogynistic quote. Everyone laughed.

White commented at the end that he thought the event brought the whole country together. He's right, of course--so long as the "country" is only comprised of the third of the population who represent "real" America, white and poorly educated and angry at how the face of the country is changing, as it always has. The NYT had a photo of a bunch of them at the watch party across the street from the White House.

You can find both Bevis and Butthead in there, hundreds of times over. Almost entirely male. Makes one think we need a good war of attrition, for the good of the gene pool.

But enough of all that. The Knicks moment brought a wave of good feeling across a huge cross-section of folks who otherwise might not have had much in common. The Birthday Bacchanal tickled the dopamine receptors of all the worst people in our country, and made the rest of us feel violated that it happened in our space and on our dime.

I'll take the former, and shake the dust off my sandals as to the latter.