I just got back from a fiveday visit to America's largest city. With a population of 8.5 million, New York City is an urban jungle of dazzling skyscrapers, historical monuments and a melting pot of race and religion. It was my first time back in 30 years and different in a way I never expected.
My husband and I stayed near Madison Square Garden. It was convenient and affordable in a very expensive city when you add on a 37 per cent exchange rate. Near out hotel homeless people slept under cardboard boxes, drug addicts begged and people with mental illness ate out of garbage cans. None of it scared me. It's familiar, we've seen it in our own city and I understand how to navigate around it.
What I didn't expect was a different kind of fear - the unexpected. In the subways, large public places or cultural venues, I felt like a sitting duck. Instinctively, I checked out people, not for their unique New York style, but whether they looked suspicious.
In Times Square, we passed by the memorial for the dead and injured mowed down by a mentally ill man. We stopped at the Trump Tower, awestruck by the many police officers in full battle fatigues holding submachine guns, while a walk around Wall Street meant navigating intense security barriers. Cameras and police are on every corner, in uniform and undercover, on horses and bikes. It felt like a city under siege.
Every time I got on the subway I was met with the same message: "If you see something, say something. Be aware of the bigger picture, be vigilant, be suspicious of anything unattended." So you comply and scan the subway car and remain alert.
The 911 Museum and Memorial was a priority but by the time our tour was over, I was ready to flee. The tribute to the victims is beautifully executed and heart wrenching, our tour guide continuously reminding us that we were in a graveyard holding the souls of over 2,000 people. The magnitude of the worst terror attack in history was sobering and deeply disturbing.
"Be fearless." That's how a family friend who recently moved to New York from Singapore described the philosophy of New Yorkers in business and in daily life. "Who's ever fearless?" we joked. "I'm not." Perhaps the mantra is a survival strategy in a country that has become increasingly polarized and violent.
It felt so good to land in YVR and know that I was home. I recognize terrorism can happen anywhere and the most recent London attack has become more personal as we learn a victim was from Castlegar. These attacks are senseless and enrage us all.
Like New Yorkers, let's be fearless and keep travelling as it's essential to our understanding of the world, but be prepared for a new America and a new Europe as we venture away from our beautiful little piece of paradise.
Ingrid Abbott is a writer and broadcaster whose next trip will be in the wild outdoors where the only thing to fear will be the mosquitos.
