Let's not forget that Frederick Funston has also made major contributions
to Homeland Security.  With his example, we would rest assured if we were
faced with any mass attack or disaster.  As the commander of the Presidio
at the time of the 1906 SF Earthquake and Fire, he declared martial law and
took over the city, in flagrant violation of the law.  He had his troops
shoot people as looters who were trying to save their belongings from the
fire.  He attempted to make firebreaks by setting off dynamite, and was so
incompetent that we have him to thank for the fire spreading west of Van
Ness Avenue.  Of course, other civic leaders were not too much better.  The
emergency committee which ran the recovery ignored reports of rats and the
danger of bubonic plague because they believed that plague was a Chinese
disease and they saw no problem in ridding the town of Chinese.  Many white
citizens died of plague as a result.  The story of incompetence, fraud, and
discrimination goes on -- a grand tradition.  Too bad Mark Twain wasn't
dead then.

Hilton Obenzinger
Stanford University