Uptown Ruler on 9/11

Originally posted September 11, 2004 by Scrutiny Hooligans’ own Uptown Ruler.

It was a morning like any other.

I took the subway from my brownstone in Park Slope, Brooklyn to Automotive High School in Greenpoint. It was my second year as a teacher at this vocational school of 800 students, 98% of whom were male. AHS is not a neighborhood school, so students come from all of Brooklyn to attend, some taking up to two hours to get there.

AHS is further proof of America’s greatness in the history of civilizations as the Immigration Nation. The student body is made up of young men from all over the world, though a majority come from the Carribean.

After my first period class, I walked out into hallway, and the students were excited and rushing around. “What’s going on?” I asked a young man. “A plane hit one of the towers.”

“Nah, I don’t believe that,” I replied.

“Go ask the security officer,”

The security officer just told me to go look out the window, and as AHS is very close to the river separating Manhattan and Brooklyn, we had a fairly clear view of the World Trade Center, so I walked out back into the teacher parking lot into the street.

And there they were.

Thick black smoke poured from one of the towers. A colleague of mine and I stood dumbfounded for a time. What was there to say? Then he shook his head. “Someone is gonna get bombed for this.”

My younger brothers worked in Manhattan so I was worried, but no more worried than two of my colleagues whose husbands worked in or near the World Trade Center. Everyone was in shock. The city shut down for a time, and we thought we might have keep the students at the school over night.

No one knew anything.

Finally, the city buses started running again, and we were able to send the students home. I got a ride from a friend, at least part of the way, and I walked the other part home. Americans are known for our loud brash talking, in other countries you can hear us coming blocks away; but on this day, though 100,000s were in the streets, heading home, there was little noise at all.

We, Scrutiny Hooligans, pay our respects to those who lost their lives in this tragedy. Both those who died on that terrible day, and all innocents everywhere, who continue to perish in the aftermath.