[lit-ideas] Organize, Strike, Fire
- From: "Mike Geary" <atlas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 1 Mar 2009 10:09:15 -0600
EY:
> Look, mommy, firemen, there's going to be a fire!
This reminded me of the Firemen's Strike in Memphis in July 1978. All the
firemen (except the chiefs) had gone out on strike and to up the ante, they
started setting fire to abandoned / empty buildings and houses -- probably
several landlords helped them out as well (I'm positive -- can't prove it
though -- that one restaurant owner torched his place). The National Guard was
called in and curfews were enforced. Still the fires continued with only a
handful of chiefs and inexperienced National Guardsmen to fight them.
Serendipitously (to a particular kind of mind), at the height of the strike,
and quite unrelated to it, a worker at one of the city's electric substations
was drunk and threw a switch that turned off a large segment of the city's
electric grid and it quickly cascaded into a total black out. Wow, that was
exciting. In the total darkness you could see fires burning all over the city.
Half the population of Memphis was certain that the other half had declared
war on them and went to bed with their guns. Who says nothing ever happens in
Memphis?
Mike Geary
Memphis
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