Saturday, April 15, 2006

Behold the Man

Not long ago, I read in the Weekly Standard:
ONE OF THE LEAST VISITED memorials in Washington is a waterfront statue commemorating the men who died on the Titanic. Seventy-four percent of the women passengers survived the April 15, 1912, calamity, while 80 percent of the men perished. Why? Because the men followed the principle 'women and children first.
The monument, an 18-foot granite male figure with arms outstretched to the side, was erected by "the women of America" in 1931 to show their gratitude. The inscription reads: "To the brave men who perished in the wreck of the Titanic. .
. . They gave their lives that women and children might be saved."
Today, almost no one remembers those men.
Perhaps we can remember them today, nintey four years after their sacrifice. The valour of Flight 93 notwithstanding, similar solidarity is difficult to imagine today and something valuable has been lost.

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