UPDATE @10:45; still 53°; gusting wind,light rain off and on.
Bad Day for Homophobes
The Sacramento Bee reports that anti-gay Senator Roy Ashburn turns out to be not so anti-gay as his record and speeches may have suggested. After drunkenly driving out of the closet this weekend, Ashburn sez: “I’m gay.”
UPDATE @ 9:05, now 53 °, windy after light rain.
Quake in Turkey
AP is reporting on serious morning quake in eastern Turkey.
After the Shaking
On the building at the southeast corner 22nd and Guerrero, a plaque commemorates Heber Cady Tilden, who was killed after the 1906 earthquake. A prominent article about post-earthquake Chile in Sunday’s New York Times, “The Moral Ambiguity of Looting” reminded me of Tilden’s story and the days following San Francisco’s “Big One”. It’s a story to remember as we prepare our “earthquake kit of the mind.”
In the immediate aftermath of the Big One, when banks were busy rescuing money as ordinary people focused on saving lives, the Mayor was mainly concerned about “the rats of San Francisco waterfront, the drifters who have reached the back eddy of European civilization” (Chinese, yes, but also Irish, Italians etc.) taking to the streets. Within four hours of the quake, in the absence of generalized chaos, much less “looting”, Mayor Eugene Schmitz with General Frederick Funston at his side proclaimed: “Federal troops, the members of the regular police force and special police officers have been authorized to kill any and all persons engaged in looting or in the commission of any other crime.” San Franciscans (other than Chinese, Irish, etc.) welcomed the proclamation which they believed established a de-facto state of martial law, which it did not. Nonetheless the soldiers were given the power of judge, jury and executioner, a power that extended to hastily “deputized” neighborhood citizens committees, and even ad hoc groups of vigilantes, creating a Baghdad-like dystopia, with checkpoints at every block controlled by men with guns. Although anecdotal evidence, and reports like this one by Emma Goldman, point to widespread violence and intimidation of ordinary people by vigilantes, soldiers and police as well, Tilden’s story, because of his prominence at the time, remains the best known.
For more on the Big One and its aftermath, see Philip Fradkin’s The Great Earthquake and Firestorms of 1906.
Mission’s Today — International Women’s Day
No big MUNI meetings or actions today other than catching the bus. Interested in the future of street food in SF, catch this morning’s hearing of the licensing food carts. This evening internationally acclaimed violinist Jennifer Koh at Capp Street Community Music Center; wine, tapas and Alan Bock’s one-act Drunken City at the Brava; film nite at the Revolution Cafe; and an International Women’s Day Reading & Celebration (in Glen Park).
Quake in Turkey
I’m aware there are many books, etc. dealing with the aftermath of the Big One, but not many dealing directly, or as directly as Fradkin, with the martial law/vigilantism. If you have any suggestions, please add let me know. I understand the Fradkin book is somewhat controversial as he suggests “disaster capitalism” is not a new phenomenon.
And I didn’t know you needed a weatherman to tell you which way the wind was blowing.
There’s lots of good writing on the aftermath of the SF quake. And Chinatown was resurrected as exotic attraction…. What, no afternoon weather report?…
x/pat