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JUDY WOODRUFF: Protesters 
took to the streets of 
Paris and other French 
cities this weekend,

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asking why billionaires and the 
government have rushed to the 
aid of the Notre Dame Cathedral

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after its terrible fire, while 
millions of ordinary French 
citizens are being squeezed

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economically.

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Income inequality is just one 
issue that may gain momentum 
in the aftermath of the fire.

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Stephane Gerson is the 
English-language editor 
of "France in the World: 
A New Global History."

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In his Humble Opinion, the fire 
that ravaged Notre Dame should 
force us all to take a look

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at our other human-made crises.

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STEPHANE GERSON, Institute of 
French Studies, NYU: This past 
Monday, my son sent me a text

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that read simply: "Notre Dame."

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I didn't know what he meant.

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So he wrote again: 
"It's on fire.

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Terrible."

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I turned on the TV and saw 
the cathedral burn, the spire 
collapse, the roof crash down.

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I watched Parisians and 
others cry along the Seine.

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For a while, I thought of 
moments in French history that 
involved the cathedral, 1287,

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the masons of Notre 
Dame traveling across 
Europe to show their 
excellence in stonecutting,

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or August 1944, Charles de 
Gaulle coming under sniper 
fire inside Notre Dame.

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This is what historians 
do in moments like these.

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We go to the past.

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But that night, I 
also thought about our 
present and our future.

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We are horrified because Notre 
Dame is the most poignant 
reminder in this brittle age

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of ours, this age of 
accelerating climate 
change and mass 
displacement, that nothing

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is eternal.

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Hasn't Notre Dame 
always been with us?

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Hasn't it always stood strong, 
stone rising into the skies, 
tower standing guard, its

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spire inviting us to aim 
for something higher?

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Monuments such as these enter 
our collective heritage.

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The mythic cathedral is 
eternal and indestructible.

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We are eternal and 
indestructible.

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But, no, look, Notre 
Dame is burning.

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The spire is collapsing.

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The roof is crashing down, 
unless it is our roof, our 
collective roof that is crashing

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down.

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A century ago exactly, 
in 1919, the writer 
Paul Valery provided 
reflected on the massive

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destruction science had 
wrought during World War I.

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"We civilizations," he wrote 
"now know that we are mortal.

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Valery was telling us 
that our civilization can 
precipitate its own undoing.

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His warning is not mere history.

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We watched a cathedral burn.

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And though we know that 
cathedrals can rebuilt, 
we feel something deeper.

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Could it be the premonition that 
some disasters, some fires are 
so incandescent that nothing

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remains afterwards, 
not even civilization?

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There is a theory that disasters 
can shake the status quo.

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By suspending the usual order, 
by displaying its failures, they 
can open up new solidarities

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and maybe, in this case, 
collective responses to 
environmental destruction 
and forced migration.

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The emotions we experienced 
before a shared ordeal, shock 
and sorrow, empathy, immersion

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in the moment, can bring 
us together around a 
vision of the common good.

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I had been skeptical about 
this theory in the past, but 
the emotion we felt watching

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the cathedral burn, the 
emotion we felt imagining 
a world burning, might 
this emotion then allow

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us to avert further 
destruction, to work 
together towards a different 
future, not only for the

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cathedral, but also 
for human civilization?

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"Notre Dame, it's on fire.

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Terrible."

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As I reread my son's texts, 
I have to hope that this 
time will be different.

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JUDY WOODRUFF: French 
historian Stephane Gerson.