April 18, 2006
Earthquake Weather
Tags: April 18, 1906; birds and snakes and aeroplanes; the uses of disaster.
Caleb McDaniel and others remind me that today is the 100th anniversary of the Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906. Caleb quotes from the autobiography of the journalist / social activist Dorothy Day, who witnessed the quake:
What I remember most plainly about the earthquake was the human warmth and kindliness of everyone afterward. … While the crisis lasted, people loved each other. They realized their own helplessness while nature ‘travaileth and groaneth.’ It was as though they were united in Christian solidarity. It makes one think of how people could, if they would, care for each other in times of stress, unjudgingly, with pity and with love.
This idea, and I think that very quotation, were at the heart of an essay in Harper’s last October by San Francisco writer Rebecca Solnit, about the relationship between disasters, authority, and human nature. A short excerpt, along with a post-Katrina postscript that did not appear in the magazine, are available at the Harper’s site.
People routinely remark on the âsurprisingâ emergence of bravery and human kindness in the wake of a terrible disaster. The aftermath of a disaster is “often peculiarly hopeful,” Solnit says. Traumas shake us out of our ordinary lives and preoccupations, revealing our common humanity. And the grunt work of rebuilding and repairing after calamity is, apparently, some of the most fulfilling work we are ever given an opportunity to do. Solnit, a journalist / activist herself I think, even sees political possibility in disaster:
In the rupture of the ordinary, real change often emerges. … Disaster threatens not only bodies, buildings, and property but also the status quo. Disaster recovery is not just a rescue of the needy but also a scramble for power and legitimacy, one that the status quo usually—but not always—wins. … Disaster makes it clear that our interdependence is not only an inescapable fact but a fact worth celebrating—that the production of civil society is a work of love, indeed the work that many of us desire most.
Solnit’s article was written just before Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans last summer but published immediately after, and her optimistic view of the possibilities of disaster seemed a little kooky at a time when the news was all shootings and lootings and horror at the Superdome. The article reads much better now, I think, and I’m glad the anniversary of the 1906 Earthquake led me to give it another look. Check it out if you didn’t see it last September, or even if you did.
Formatting note: What is the deal with the formatting of this entry? Why do some of my paragraphs insist on centering themselves? Why is it inconsistent depending on which browser I’m using? Could it be that I bashed this site together with virtually zero knowledge of CSS? Advice welcomed. Formatting seems to be fixed, thanks to a simple suggestion from the excellent Matt Norwood. Do let me know if anything still looks wonky.
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Comments
I think your centering problem may come from the fact that some paragraphs (the centered ones, it seems) are not enclosed in <p></p> tags.
Posted by: Matt Norwood at April 19, 2006 12:03 AM
Aha, you are right. MT is supposed to add those for you but something about the blockquotes was messing it up. Thanks!
Posted by: Rob at April 19, 2006 01:29 PM
