Flashes of Panic

…often.

I bought a slew of books to go to and from Japan, some of which were worth the time (Under the Banner of Heaven, by John Krakauer, which made me forget how sick I was on the flight over, fascinating and in some ways frightening,) and some not so much (Faithful, by Stewart O’Nan and Steven King, which I kept expecting to get better, but it never did—not even at the end.)

One which for some reason amused by brother tremendously when he saw it on the stack was Dark Tide, by Stephen Puleo. Dark Tide is, I think, the only book to tell the story of the great Boston molasses flood, a favorite story (if a disaster can be “favorite”) of many in this area (particularly in the North End, where it happened.) There are all kinds of anecdotal tales of the flood, and a Schooner Fare song:

In the morning it was forty-two
Molasses vat split clean in two.
Two million gallons covered the bay
Twenty-six people drowned in the flood that day.

One of the points Puleo makes in the book is that the massive molasses tank was sited in the North End because at the time, the bulk of the local population were Italian immigrants living in tenements. The Italians took a beating in those days; most weren’t citizens and stayed out of local politics (Boston’s Irish population was only just beginning to amass political power,) many traveled back to Italy seasonally, and few learned English. It didn’t help that the radical anti-war movement (opposed, at the time, to World War I,) and the violent Anarchist movement were largely Italian-led; hundreds were deported.

Because the Italians weren’t represented in local politics, there was nobody to resist the placement of the tank in a busy area. After the disaster, Puleo points out, Boston’s Italian community took a greater interest in learning English, becoming citizens, and entering politics (by voting, at a minimum): essentially, assimilating, but also taking up political power. The current speaker of the Massachusetts House has an Italian name, for example.

While I was reading that, I was hearing radio reports about the immigration demonstrations this week. About how, for once, there were demonstrations in opposition to proposed government policy which were coherent, direct, and stuck to a single message.

The proposed immigration bill isn’t (yet) a bizarre and sudden disaster which kills dozens and injures over a hundred more. But I wonder if it might have the unintended effect of motivating an immigrant community to enter the system formally (learning English, gaining citizenship however possible, and voting as a bloc.) And, potentially, changing the balance of power.

Like I said, I don’t talk about politics much. But the possible parallel seemed worth mentioning.