18 August 2002 WITH THEIR EYES: SEPTEMBER 11TH--THE VIEW FROM A HIGH SCHOOL AT GROUND ZERO edited by Annie Thoms, Harper Tempest, September 2002

Kevin Zhang, sophomore

"I saw this

huge plane it was...

it looked much bigger than the first one,

it just,

it looked like one of those jets, you know, in the movies,

you know, Air Force One or something, one of those big jets.

It was one of those and it just hits--

it hit the building right there."

So begins the Overture to WITH THEIR EYES: SEPTEMBER 11TH--THE VIEW FROM A HIGH SCHOOL AT GROUND ZERO. The book consists primarily of the script to a theatrical production that was performed this past February by students at Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan. Stuyvesant is a magnet school located a few blocks away from where the World Trade Center used to exist. Their production utilized a theater-making technique developed by playwright and actress Anna Deavere Smith. The students involved in the project interviewed peers and adults from their school in regard to their personal recollections of the events and aftermath from September 11th. Portions of the statements made by those interviewed became the script for the production; the cast then utilized costume and characterization to become the witnesses whose words they presented.

Those words are so powerful, they beg to be shared. As with Naomi Shihab Nye's 19 VARIETIES OF GAZELLE: POEMS OF THE MIDDLE EAST, WITH THEIR EYES is a book that promotes understanding and healing. I'll be sharing both during next month's anniversary of the tragedy.

These characters were significantly impacted by the events of September 11th. For nearly a month following the tragedy, the Stuyvesant High School building acted as a command center--first for the rescue efforts, and then for the cleanup. During that time the Stuyvesant students attended split-shift classes in the building of their academic rivals, Brooklyn Tech. Some of the students were also forced to live elsewhere because of the proximity of their homes to ground zero:

Max Willens, senior

"...So then we finally get home, and it was--

my house looked like a black and white photograph.

We'd left the windows open that day.

Everything was gray or black, or even just a, a dusted color.

Everything was just--I felt like I was, you know, walking into a portrait,

The house just...

it was just dirty.

When things are dirty there's--it's like a multi-sensory thing,

it was like,

I guess I'm saying it again,

it was walking into a photograph.

It was just dirty...It wasn't even my house anymore."

There are characters who talk of trying to find their way around their temporary school and then of returning to their own school where they have to deal with newly imposed security rules. They speak of the smell and taste of the air. One ponders aloud whether this was a wake-up call to live life differently while another muses about what really matters. Max Willens describes his revulsion toward tourists whipping out disposable cameras in order to get photos of themselves in front of the wreckage. A Muslim student discusses fearing for his safety and the safety of his family.

One very memorable segment that sums up our sense of helplessness is spoken by a school safety agent who was called away from Stuyvesant to help evacuate young children from a nearby public school:

Juan Carlos Lopez, school safety agent

"...For a little while I feared for my life.

I could have died that day conceivably, potentially,

you know, maybe not but there's a chance

anything could happen, exactly?

I got caught in that second cloud

by the collapse of that north tower

and I got grit and dust everywhere.

"And you know

what an odd thing this is

a peculiar little odd thing

just a little quirk, just

an odd thing but, ah, the day before

on Monday evening I had taken the time to shine my shoes.

'cause it's kind of weird I took the time to shine my shoes

and I did a good job, right,

and then Tuesday morning

it was a beautiful sunny day

you know

and as I was dusting myself off

from the debris of the north tower

I--I, I shook my clothes off and then I looked down

at my shoes and my shoes were a whole 'nother color

they were completely covered

and then I thought to myself

I just shined them yesterday and it was then this odd thought

just popped into my head,

this very peculiar thing,

it's totally absurd...

I thought for just a moment

if I had never shined my shoes

maybe this whole thing may never have happened.

As absurd as that sounds it sort of made me

laugh and cry at the same time. I called it my morbid moment.

If it was something as simple as that

then I would have never have shined my shoes ever..."

Richie Partington

http://richiespicks.com

BudNotBuddy@aol.com