The proposal is to ban the horses and carriages from New York and replace them with “eco-friendly” electric vintage (antique) cars that cost about $150,000 per car, according to a New York City newspaper. I like this photo, I took it at the West Side Livery Stable, it seems a symbol in my mind of what we might lose and what might replace it. There are always two sides to every story, I am struggling to find the other one here, there are just too many things being said that are not true.

Perhaps I’ll see that differently as the issue evolves. So far, my heart is with the horses and their carriages, with the romance and the magic I see in them. In a way, the choice between the carriages and the vintage cars are the perfect metaphor for the choices we are really making, the magic and the romance and the mystery pitted against the politically correct, the shallow and the eco-correct dull. I am all for the environment, I hear Mother Earth crying out to us all the time, but I do not believe she would for one second choose a vintage electric cart against a big working horse and his or her beautiful old carriage, made by the Amish in Pennsylvania. There needs to be magic in the world, and history, and the romance and risk of things.

I suspect the children of New York and the world beyond will not remember their electric cart rides years later when they recall the magic images of their trips to New York. I think of this carriage all of the time when I think of my visit to New York last month.

We all choose our symbols, I’ll take the carriage over the electric cart every time. This is such a significant choice.