neonvincent

As part of the opening to Debate, endorsements, and a poll from KPBS in San Diego, I observed in passing that yesterday (at least here in Michigan) is a holiday. I made no further mention of the day, which is odd, because I stated in Happy Festivus! that I love holidays, including fake ones. I realized that I should have posted something about Martin Luther King Day, at least as much as last year, when it was combined with Obama's Inauguration. Today, I'll mark the occasion by describing my most vivid memory about the holiday, which ironically has nothing to do with the intended meaning of the day. Instead, it's about experiencing the Northridge earthquake from afar through television, a story I tell my students.

Before our daughter was born, my ex-wife and I had agreed that I would take the second feeding of the night, which means that she was bottle-fed. After several years, that meant that I was in charge of my daughter's breakfast. On the morning of MLK Day, my daughter woke me up by saying "Daddy, I'm hungry." So I got up, prepared her breakfast, sat her down in front of the TV in the basement, and then put one of her favorite Disney tapes, which was either "Sleeping Beauty" or "Cinderella," I forget which. Just before the tape started running, I saw the announcement on Good Morning America that there had been an earthquake in Los Angeles. "Yeah, yeah, what else is new," I thought. Then the movie started and I lay down on the couch to sleep. After all, it was a holiday, and I didn't have to go to school or work. When I woke up, Regis and Cathy Lee were not on, as I expected, but news coverage. I recognized immediately that this was a bad thing. The last time I saw news instead of the mid-morning show was when the Challenger exploded. I grew even more horrified when it was about the earthquake and the location shots were all of places I knew and had been. There was damage at the university I had attended before I moved,* damage to the apartments my sister had lived in, damage to the mall where I had shopped. I may have been 2,000 miles and five years away, but it still struck close to home.

I could go on, but I'll let Peter Jennings and the ABC Evening News do the showing instead of me doing the telling in 1/17/94 1st Segment of "ABC World News Tonight" Northridge Quake.

For the rest of the entry, including two embedded videos, surf over to Twentieth anniversary of Northridge earthquake at Crazy Eddie's Motie News.

In tonight's Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (From Wisconsin to Japan edition) on Daily Kos, I included science-related press releases from eight major public universities in the Midwest. More than half of them had something to say about the earthquake in Japan. Mostly, it was "Got questions? Ask us!"

( U of M, MSU, UW, Purdue, and Rutgers offering their experts to the press behind the cut. )

Only one university expressed sympathy--the University of Wisconsin.

Chancellor message to Japanese students, faculty, staff and alumni

I can not tell you how deeply saddened I was to hear of the news of the earthquake and tsunami that has devastated Japan. The effects of this terrible tragedy are beyond comprehension.

Along with the entire University of Wisconsin-Madison community, I hope that you and your families are safe and have not suffered greatly. Our hearts go out to the families and friends of all those who have been injured, had their property destroyed, or who have lost their lives.

In times like this, we come together as a community. We are here to assist you and will lend our energy and talents to support you and all of Japan’s recovery.

Wisconsin was also the only one to issue a public statement in which it alerted people back home about the status of its students in Japan.
UW-Madison students in Japan are safe
Campus reacts to international tragedy
March 11, 2011
by John Lucas

In the wake of the massive earthquake and tsunami, UW-Madison has confirmed the safety of all of its students studying in Japan.

International Academic Programs has a total of 14 students in programs based at four universities in Tokyo, Nagoya and Sapporo.

As of 5 p.m. Froday, March 11, all students have been reached. Communications were complicated by power and cellular outages. In addition, information about tsunami warnings has been communicated to students studying in Ecuador, Peru, and Chile.

I have only one thing to say: On Wisconsin!