General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHistory and Hamilton fans: The Hurricane letter was written Sept 6, 1772.
https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Letter_by_Alexander_Hamilton_on_the_hurricane_of_August_1772The hurricane hit on 31 August 1772. It was one of the most devastating to have hit the Caribbean, but we really don't know what CAT it would have been. It was absolutely very, very bad.
(That was a single paragraph. It's also the lede. The rest of the letter is extremely 18th century, but also written by a 17 year old who had survived more trauma than most and was doing his damnedest to survive.)
It looks like Irma will hit Nevis on the 245th anniversary of that letter.
May it brush past the Leewards, dodge the Dominican Republic and Haiti, skip Cuba, and concentrate its full force on Mar-a-lago and nothing else.
nycbos
(6,039 posts)Our man saw his future drip, dripping down the drain
Put a pencil to his temple, connected it to his brain
And he wrote his first refrain, a testament to his pain.
Well, the word got around, they said, This kid is insane, man
Took up a collection just to send him to the mainland
Get your education, dont forget from whence you came, and
The world's gonna know your name. Whats your name, man?
https://genius.com/7917496
Couldn't resist.
politicat
(9,808 posts)I just find the resonances in history fascinating. Obviously, most hurricanes hit in season -- duh -- and yes, there were bad ones before we started naming and predicting them. But with the Leewards and Puerto Rico in the hard threat zone, it made me curious, and because Hamilton is, in many ways, the Original Dreamer. Definitely an unaccompanied minor.
There is a kid in Houston who will write their way out of their own hell. There will be a kid in the Caribbean who will do the same. People will keep doing that, because narrative is how humanity makes sense of horror and chaos. We keep doing this, and each time, we do it a little better, with a little more finesse. It's that long cycle resonance I keep trying to remember.
lisby
(408 posts)And there's a million things I haven't done
But just you wait.
Just you wait.