House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said this Friday about the earthquake in Haiti:

“From my own experience with earthquakes, being from San Francisco, I think that this can be an opportunity for a real boom economy in Haiti…. It can leapfrog all over its past challenges – economically, politically, and demographically in terms of the rich and poor and the rest there and have a new – just a new fresh start. And with all of the concern and compassion and enthusiasm to help the people of Haiti, nobody is better suited than President Clinton to channel that energy.”

You may remember that San Francisco, at the time a collection of hovels on the unpleasant side of poverty, used the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake to rededicate itself to economic and political development. Soon, under the channeling leadership of President Clinton, came the rise of the Internet, the development of the iPod, and the world domination of Google.

If a city like San Francisco circa 1989 could pull itself up by the bootstraps and launch into the 21st century, Haitians should see a blanket of opportunity unfolding before them.