I went to New York City yesterday with Maria, she held the artwork she designed for the horses and marched for the horses and stood with Pamela Richenbach, the co-director of Blue Star Equiculture, an organic farming center and the retirement home for the New York Carriage Horses and other draft horses.
Many strong women showed up at a rally to protest the mayor’s bill to ban the carriage trade, which was introduced into the New York City Council on Monday. Some strong men (and women also) came to the rally in the form of many members of the Teamsters Union also showed up to save the 300 jobs in the carriage trade.
The carriage drivers are Teamsters, and the Teamsters know how to stage a rally. Lots of energy, confidence, enthusiasm, it had a strong and good feeling about it. They smell a great victory.
Several hundred people came to fight for the carriage trade, just an hour or so after animal rights demonstrators held their own rally to support the mayor’s ban. I attended that rally, or perhaps infiltrated it might be a better word. Some people stared at me, figured out who I was, and muttered my name and a few curses to one another, but nobody really bothered me. It was fascinating to see the contrast in the two rallies. More about that later.
The bill to ban the carriage trade and push the drivers into green cabs that work in the outer boroughs was introduced, but had only two sponsors, a very mild show of support for a measure so important to the mayor.
The carriage trade got another boost yesterday from the New York Times, who has not deigned to bother much with the carriage trade controversy in recent years. In a strong editorial, the paper said the ban was foolish and hypocritical and ought to be dropped. All three newspapers support the carriage trade and oppose the ban, the first time all three have agreed on anything since 911.
Many of the carriage drivers and their supporters thanked me for writing about them, it was a humbling thing, it meant a lot to me. It was a wild day at City Hall, in between these two opposing rallies, there were sit-ins, die-ins and street protests against the NYPD involving the recent death of a Staten Island man in police custody.
It was interesting for me to see how journalism has changed. Both rallies were tightly produced and choreographed, the many reporters present took a lot of photos and videos but didn’t ask many questions or challenge any of the things they were hearing. Mostly, the media in New York simply relays arguments from one side or the other. It was hard for me to keep my mouth shut at times, especially at the animal rights rally.
Truth is hard to find but needs to live and breathe. It is a miracle, really, that the mayor and his supporters in the movement that claims to speak for the rights of animals seem not to have persuaded a single New Yorker in a year-long campaign to gather support to ban the carriage horses. An amazing thing, this is the power of the horses, they are not leaving New York City.
It was democracy teeming, Maria and I saw more people demonstrating around City Hall than live in our town. I love the energy and mayhem that hover in New York. Many followers of the blog were there, many lovers of horses and animals. I loved seeing Maria show off the art she designed to evoke the spirit of the horses from the spiritual and artistic side. It was so good to be there together. Exhausting too, we got back to the farm around 9 p.m. (we left at 5 a.m.) and reveled in the quiet and peace. I love going to New York, I love leaving.
I saw my many friends in the carriage trade, took a lot of photos, have a lot of things to say, perhaps tomorrow. One thing I do want to say tonight: the difference in the carriage trade from January, when I first met them, to now, is astonishing them. In January they seemed defeated and discouraged, overwhelmed by the intensity and cruelty of the attacks on them, and by a new mayor’s promise to banish them from the city on his first day in office.
I am grateful for the chance to write about this, it is so important to me and the animal lovers and to the future of animals. I will sleep well tonight, not only because I am tired but mostly because the carriage drivers are so brave and determined now. Good for them.
They are not defeated and discouraged any longer, they are focused, determined, angry, organized and increasingly savvy about how to defend and protect themselves. They have drawn supporters from the ranks of animal lovers all over the country and much of the world. The effort to ban them seems mired now, more than 66 per cent of New Yorkers support the carriage trade, along with the Chamber of Commerce, the Teamsters, the Working People’s Party and all three papers.
“We have had enough,” carriage driver Steve Malone told the cheering rally – and there was a lot of noise there today. “We have been here for more than a hundred years, we will be here for another hundred years.” I didn’t believe that was possible when I first met the carriage drivers in January, I believe it is almost a certainty now.