A Reflection from 09/11/11 - "Barclay Street is Broken"

 The below piece is something I wrote a decade ago, when I worked in downtown NYC, just blocks away from the slowly rebuilt World Trade Center. We will never forget the day of 09/11/01...

Barclay Street is Broken

I was sitting in freshman biology when my high school principal announced the attack on the World Trade Center. It was an uneasy day living 30 miles from New York City, where frantic kids tried to reach their parents. My dad took hours to get home from Manhattan, but all was fine in my world. September 11^th became present in the community, with memorials built to honor people that were lost that day. I never really felt the effect until 2010, when I began working around the corner from the World Trade Center site.

The blocks surrounding the World Trade center site, mostly filled with financial companies, government agencies, and small businesses, appear fine today. Lower Manhattan has made continuous improvements in safety in the past few years and I’m comforted to see the heavy police presence on nearby street corners and surrounding subway stations. But underneath the surface of downtown New York, I see a lurking fear in the eyes of my sidewalk sharers. It’s a common bond we are all united by. As a 9 to 5 resident of the area, I have a weary vigilance. I could never be completely comfortable being a few hundred feet from what is essentially a mass grave. It’s the announcement on the downtown E-train that gets me every time, last stop, World Trade Center.” The finality of that announcement stays with me because on September 11^th, that was the last stop for some people.

I’ve spent the last 18 months watching the construction of the new World Trade Center, along with hundreds of tourists. The tourists shock me. They come off the subway or the downtown sightseeing buses and flock toward Church Street, eager to snap a few pictures of the Ground Zero for their friends or the bent metal cross outside St. Peter’s Church, across from the WTC. The eagerness of the tourists reflects the country’s view of these events. They flock to this site, forever tied into history, with smiles on their faces, and it seems like another stop on the NY sightseeing tour. It minimizes the fear and unease that New York feels, but I’m not sure that is a good thing. 

In some ways, the effects of September 11^th have helped offer more flashy buzz for New York, Batman-style, like the week after Osama Bin Laden died. For 4-5 days, I found it impossible to get to the doors of my office because of news crews and tourists packing the surrounding streets. People ran through the streets with American flags on their backs in an attempt to show US pride, but also to attract the attention of news producers. And attract the attention they did, feeding to a media circus that New Yorkers do not want or need as we continue to heal and feel at home again.   

What Am I Reading? - June 2021 - The Wreckage of My Presence

 

I cannot remember the last time I've been reading lines from a book out loud to my boyfriend. He really started to enjoy some of the stories and passages, many of which I had heard outlined in Casey Wilson's podcast, Bitch Sesh: A Real Housewives Breakdown Show. Wilson discusses parenting, Real Housewives, getting fired from SNL, and shares many cringe-worthy stories about her beloved father, Paul.   

What am I Reading? - April 2021 - Turning the Tables

 

It started with a table flip, and ended with a ride home from a federal prison... I was very familiar with the story of Real Housewives of New Jersey's Teresa Giudice, a seemingly short-tempered, cash-flashing housewife. In Turning The Tables: From Housewife to Inmate and Back Again, we hear more of the nuance of the story, concluding at the time of her release from prison in 2016. A collection of old stories, musings, and journals let us into the inner psyche of the woman, whose husband, "Juicy Joe" left  to begin his own sentence at the beginning of her freedom

The most straining part of this story was to see two people that seemed like they used to be so in love, now so broken. When reading about their heartfelt calls and visits at the Danbury correctional center, when  compared to the reality of their draining separation, I felt like I was missing a piece of the puzzle. Granted, both have served prison sentences, lost parents, and Joe was deported back to Italy by ICE since he was technically an illegal immigrant as a child and never got a green card.  I really have to thank Co-author K.C, Baker for whatever she did for this book, which I suspect is turning it from half sentences and incorrectly used phrases, and making it easy for a human to understand. Watching her speak to her friends and family on TV can be a stressful experience if you like to hear people speaking the Queen's English, but I digress..., I now can see some shred of humanity to this woman that I hadn't seen before. She cares deeply for her friends, her kids, and her family. She also believes in the importance faith, fitness, and being a polite housemate. I think her time away taught her some humility and patience, which she was in short supply of up until that point. After all, she did almost black out in rage and flip over a table in the middle of a restaurant... As Countess Lu says, "Money can't buy you class."

via GIPHY

I give it a 4 out of 5! Minus a point for Juicy Joe, just as person. 

What am I Reading? - March 2021 - Natural Disaster

 

My bookshelf gained a new book this month! Over the pandemic, I have fallen in like with ABC's Chief Meteorologist, Ginger Zee. She forecasted and broadcasted from her basement for most of 2020, letting her hair's natural curls take center stage and  parenting while on live TV when her kids interrupt her reports, as seen in this clip  from Access Hollywood. 

I began following/stalking @Ginger_Zee on Twitter early in the pandemic because she seemed  like a relatable person on-air. I quickly learned that people direct message and @ her daily, dumping on  her fashion and hair choices (as Stephanie Tanner says, "How Rude!") She takes this abuse with grace and poise, reaching out to the fans and defending herself and her fashion choices. She wants to make every hater into a follower, and she does this well. 

In early Winter 2020, I discovered the  Narcolepsy 360 podcast, where a recent guest was, you guessed it, Ginger Zee. I learned she has suffered from the disease since her teen years, and had battled it while working through on-site storm coverage and 10+ weekend shifts earlier in her career. I immediately ordered myself this book, which catches us up to the present.  

Through reading this story, I learned about a courageous woman whose love of storms in her childhood propelled her to study meteorology in college. I had no idea schools offered degrees in meteorology. The chapter about her work covering Hurricane Katina is heartbreaking, and shows her heart and courage.  I give it 5 out of 5!