Today the White House confirmed that President Obama placed congratulatory phone calls to the two street vendors who first reported the suspicious vehicle packed with explosives in Times Square Saturday. Obama also rang the mounted police officer and his partner who immediately started the evacuation. At press time, we're still waiting for Obama to call some of the websites who first informed the public about the incident.
Vietnam veteran Duane Jackson, who sells handbags in Times Square, tells the Daily News, "[Obama] thanked me for taking notice when not a lot of people would have. He said 'The nation is proud of you.'" But the other vendor, Lance Orton, did not divulge details about his chat with the President, explaining, "I'm just an average guy. A glory hound seeks attention—that ain't me." Orton's sister works as a psychiatrist with the Justice Department, counseling law enforcement officers, and she tells the News, "He's always looking out for other people." Well, that settles it, we're on Team Lance.
But according to Slate's Fred Kaplan, the vendors and the cops and the robot should share the spotlight with the already famous activist Jane Jacobs, because she "observed that sidewalks and their users are 'active participants in the drama of civilization versus barbarism' (by 'barbarism,' she meant crime) and that a continuously busy sidewalk is a safe sidewalk, because those who have business there—'the natural proprietors of the street'—provide 'eyes upon the street.'" Mo maybe after all this the NYPD will think twice before arresting our vigilant vendors.
