David Prowler Blog

You read a lot about the creation of cities.  In my world that’s the work we do.  But let’s take a moment to reflect on the flip side: the destruction of cities.

Sometimes it is nature.

New Orleans

Pompeii, 79 CE

Or San Francisco in 1906:

“twenty years to build, twenty seconds to destroy”

There’s a 2:1 chance of a repeat in San Francisco in the next 25 years.  But we mostly ignore it.

Sometimes it’s something we do to each other:

Like London during the Blitz

Or Nanking, Hiroshima, Beirut, Dresden, Guernica, Helsinki, Beijing, Bucharest, and Cologne.

In the Second World War, both the Allies and the Axis airforces bombed Bucharest.

Tel Aviv, Belgrade, Budapest, Stalingrad and Leningrad.  100,000 killed in one night in Tokyo.  Lovers and love letters alike, burnt.

Even Atlanta.

Divine Intervention

To really slap down a city, there is nobody like God. Like the destruction of Sodom:

Or the Flood, which took out every city and town.

Many people look forward to the Rapture.

(also tough on cities)

Both Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush really thought this will happen.  So do all the evangelical Christians. It understandably makes it difficult to plan ahead. Which explains a lot.

Please take a moment to remember fallen cities.