Even Greener Pastures

There doesn't seem to be a better way to say it, and the answer isn't 'well he should have said something else'.

After 911 there were leaders in the world and the US that showed their solidarity with New York by saying things like "Today, I am a New Yorker, today we are all New Yorkers".  It is poor English.  Obviously they are not all from NY.  If you want to make fun you can say, 'What are they saying - They are a Chrysler luxury car?  They are a popular magazine?".  But no one does that because language, and may I say especially English, has more flexibility than that.

It is an odd construction because it is very abstract idea.  But it worked.