Here’s a nasty little secret I discovered while out of town last week: New Yorkers, at least those who live in the city, are the butt of jokes to the rest of the country. We’ve managed to lose whatever respect and sympathy we had after September 11, 2001. Tourists flock here because we still have so many attractions to offer, but while our city shines, residents reap ridicule.

Last week, I visited Virginia’s Colonial Williamsburg and Busch Gardens, both jammed with spring break visitors from all over the country. Many of those I met had Southern accents, but surprisingly others were from around the city. On the tram to the historic sites, the bus driver was speaking to a couple sitting up front who mentioned they were from upstate New York. “There’s a world of difference between upstate and New York City,” the woman cautioned, proudly. The driver then said she’d met a man from New York City who asked if she was in the union. When she told him she wasn’t, he said he made three times her salary. “Yes,” she answered him, “but it costs four times more to live in New York City.” Everybody on the bus started laughing.

There was a time when I would have jumped in to defend my hometown – but how can you argue with the truth?

I’m a former Manhattan chauvinist who used to feel smug about living in the “city,” even when it was in a housing project. I had no idea what living in the other boroughs meant. Even when I resided in the more expensive areas of the city, like the Upper East and West sides, the rents were incomparable to what they are now. What I paid $165 a month for then is now renting for $3,000!

Besides our having to pay outrageous prices for small, cramped apartments, our voting choices prompt even greater guffaws. Everyone knows that Senator Clinton is the Democrat front-runner for the 2008 presidential race, yet she is heavily favored for re-election this November. Basically, that means that New Yorkers will be voting for someone who can’t wait to leave the state.

Ann Coulter has been quoted as saying, “The rest of America hates New York.” Laughing, she added, “I love that. I find that comforting.” Well, Ms. Coulter is not a New Yorker, but I am. I was born here and I miss what this city used to be.

Admittedly, there are some things about New Yorkers that invite derision. Watching someone pooper-scoop behind a Great Dane invites the question: Why is this dog living in an apartment? New York has always attracted posers and fakes, but neighborhoods used to keep things real. Now even the neighborhoods are vanishing, being replaced by posers and fakes with enough money to live in the condominiums replacing the old nabes.

But one has to actually get out of town to get an idea of how we are perceived by the nation. Sophisticated (in their own minds) New Yorkers may look down on Nascar people, but once you leave New York and head south, you are in Nascar country.

Thousands of cars filled the parking areas at Busch Gardens and Colonial Williamsburg. The $3-plus a gallon gasoline wasn’t stopping them. (Pssst! The economy is booming and it’s all President Bush’s fault.)

I saw Nascar stickers on hats, jackets, and bumper stickers. There were couples with babies and old folks in wheelchairs. The theme park had special signs welcoming the military and their families. Loudspeakers along a bridge honoring the armed forces piped out the various anthems of each service. Before the show started at the Haunted Lighthouse, a film aired thanking members of the military for their service to their country – and the crowd cheered. No wonder there’s so much opposition to having Nascar here in Staten Island. It attracts real Americans.

The Stars and Stripes flew everywhere in Virginia. In Williamsburg, I bought my grandson a coonskin hat and a toy rifle, and could only imagine the look of outrage on the faces of Manhattan mothers, who, mired in PC culture, have forgotten that freedom has always been won by necessary violence.

This is really why New Yorkers are regarded with scorn. Those with a lick of sense are packing up and moving to the real world while the ostriches remain in denial. Meanwhile, April 20, the Islamic Thinkers Society rallied in front of the Israeli Consulate joyfully shouting about a mushroom cloud on its way.

A young FedEx courier told me, “I just can’t understand you people in New York. You were attacked and you still say there’s no connection with the war on terrorism and 9/11. That’s just stupid.”

Can’t argue with good sense.