Here in NYC we have our subways and buses back, and maybe a tiny lesson in interdependence

Three days was quite enough for that "fun." My take is that, at a terrible price, in monetary penalties as well as public sentiment, the Transit Workers' Union fended off the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's attempt to steam-roller it.

What happens now with the contract talks is anyone's guess. (It's important to remember that while the workers agreed to end the strike, the contract impasse remains unsolved.) The media blackout that's been imposed seems like a good idea. Negotiations are likely to be more productive without that kind of microscopic scrutiny--and without either side being able to use the media.

On a shakily positive note, I wonder if there may have been a modest lesson, or at least a reminder: that in any social organization, let alone one as big and complex as NYC, we're all in this together.

It's not that I think NYers have developed a new appreciation for the hardship of the transit workers. In fact, some of the anti-transit-worker rhetoric we heard in all the media coverage was just plain shocking. But in general the hardest time coping was had by persons in the less favored sector of the economic spectrum.

Is it possible that the hardships endured by all those folks, both those who made it to work and those who didn't--people we depend on in our own workplaces, and workers who make it possible for businesses and agencies to provide products and services we depend on, as well as everyone who spends money to keep so many businesses going--may have been noticed? Not to mention the essential role they play in keeping our community functioning.

I find that what non-NYers understand least about the place, perhaps because so much attention naturally flows to the rich and famous among us, is how many of our 8 million are just regular folks eking out a living. Without these folks, however, the whole structure kind of breaks down.