Manhattan at Sunset #2

I'm reminded of this passage from E.B. White's essay, "Here is New York". He talks about how war planes could destroy all that has been built. "This race-this race between the destroying planes and the struggling Parliament of Man-it sticks in all our heads. The city at last perfectly illustrates both the universal dilemma and the general solution, this riddle in stone and steel is at once the perfect target and the perfect demonstration of nonviolence, of racial brotherhood, this lofty target scraping the skies and meeting the destroying planes halfway, home of all people and all nations, capital of everything, housing the deliberations by which the planes are to be stayed and their errand forestalled."In the end he talks about how a battered tree symbolizes New York, "life under difficulties, growth against odds, sap-rise in the midst of concrete, and the steady reaching for the sun. Whenever I look at it nowadays, and feel the cold shadow of the planes, I think: "This must be saved, this particular thing, this very tree." If it were to go, all would go-this city, this mischievous and marvelous monument which not to look upon would be like death."