Pelosi: The People of San Francisco Did the Impossible â€" Rebuilt Our City Better Than Before
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Contact: Brendan Daly/Jennifer Crider, 202-226-7616
San Francisco â€" House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi spoke this morning at the Lotta’s Fountain Commemoration to recognize the 100th anniversary of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Below are Pelosi’s remarks:
“Good morning San Francisco.
“Thank you all for coming this morning, and thank you Mayor Newsom. It is appropriate that the Mayor would be presiding over San Francisco rising. He comes from good pioneer stock. His family was here at the time of the earthquake, and they have contributed to rebuilding this city ever since. Let’s hear it again for Mayor Newsom.
“I am pleased to be here with my colleague Tom Lantos of California and other members of the official family of San Francisco.
“To some, it may have seemed impossible that San Francisco could be rebuilt when they saw this headline in the Call Chronicle Examiner on April 19th: ‘Earthquake and Fire: San Francisco in Ruins.’ But they had faith and they had the San Francisco Fire Department.
“The City of San Francisco lived by the words of our patron saint, St. Francis of Assisi: ‘Start by doing what is necessary; then do what is possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.’ That is what the people of San Francisco did. The Mayor said 250,000 were left homeless. They lived in our parks, built temporary shelters, thousands lost loved ones, and they gathered here at this fountain to find news of the missing. Separated by class and race and neighborhood, they came together in common cause.
“Frances Mae Duffy, who was 11 months old at the time of the quake and is here this morning, said it best: ‘No matter how rich or poor you were, you got shook up just the same.’
“One week after the quake, Governor Pardee declared, ‘I expect to see the great metropolis replaced on a much grander scale than ever before.’ And indeed that happened.
“A year later, just a year later, a newspaper reported that ‘a miracle was wrought. Discipline was restored in a day; orderly government was established in a week; relief was organized almost before there was hunger to assuage; reorganization was planned before the destruction was complete, and begun before the ashes had cooled; courage was never lost.’ That is our San Francisco.
“Courage was never lost because the San Franciscans of a century ago were pioneers or they were children of pioneers. Winston Churchill could have been speaking of them and our great survivors here whom we honor when he said: ‘We have not journeyed all this way across the centuries, across the oceans, across the mountains, across the prairies because we are made of sugar candy.’ We are made of sterner stuff. For many of them, just getting here was a dangerous journey â€" over the Rockies, through the swamps of Panama, across the Pacific, or around Cape Horn. They were pioneers and risk-takers. Once they arrived, they began building a city and a future limited only by their imagination. And when the earthquake and the fire leveled the city, their imagination was sparked even further, and they began rebuilding San Francisco better than before.
“Today as we commemorate a tragedy, we also celebrate the survivors here today. You represent the heart and soul of San Francisco.
“And when we have the moment of silence here at Lotta’s Fountain we must remember that this is hallowed ground. This is where people came 100 years ago in the hopes of finding news of their loved ones, and sometimes they found their loved ones.
“Over the years, these survivors and their fellow citizens did what was necessary, they did what was possible, and then did the impossible â€" they made San Francisco what it is today.
“And so to the survivors I say, there’s an Italian expression: Cent’anni â€" may you live 100 years. Well, they did. We are very fortunate indeed that they did and we are very honored by their great contribution to our city. Cent’anni all over again.
“Thank you very much.�