In shipwrecks, we can see our sad transition

Minneapolis Star Tribune ^ | 1/29/12 | Katherine Kersten

[TalBlack]

Forget individuals, Human Nature is unchanged since the Parting of the darkness and the light. This article is about Culture and it's effect on the mass. In a Moral Culture the average is pulled up. In the absence or death of the traditional Culture the whole thing descends to chaos. There are plenty of people who remember America but in terms of the traditional American Culture America is dead. The OPERATIVE culture now is chaos.

[Joe 6-pack]

“We make men without chests and expect from them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst.”

~ C.S. Lewis

[CaptainAmiigaf]

You are a NASTY, UNKIND person, and I sadly think that you are most correct. For years now, dainty, to be cherished women have demanded EQUAL rights and responsibilities, have demanded access to the perils of combat, the dangers of the police forces and fire departments and other equalities of opportunity.
They have demanded fully EQUAL treatment in all aspects of life and endeavor, and profess horror when they are truly treated as equals when inconvenient for them.
This incident says to the NOW gang, “You have won your battle. You are no longer to be treated as someone special. Take your own chances. Good luck.”

[blueunicorn6]

When a young woman dies, it’s like a piece of the future died. That sounds trite and obvious, but women truly do shape the future. They carry the future and birth it. They nurture it. It’s why men have sacrificed themselves for centuries.

[az_gila]

Interesting story on the UK origin of the “women and children first” policy, and of the soldiers duty in the term “Birkenhead Drill”.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Birkenhead_(1845)

For those that do not know UK geography, Birkenhead is the other end of Liverpool's “Ferry across the Mersey”...:^)

[Oatka]

Interesting story on the UK origin of the “women and children first” policy, and of the soldiers duty in the term “Birkenhead Drill”.

Great minds . . . Thanks for posting. That's the first thing that came to mind when reading this. This one shows the only known drawing of the ship and a thumnnail history of the event. HERE

Kipling wrote in "Soldier and Sailor":

To take your chance in the thick of a rush, with firing all about,
Is nothing so bad when you’ve cover to find, an’ leave an’ likin’ to shout;
But to stand an’ be still to the Birken’ead drill is a tough bullet to chew,
An’ they done it, the Jollies — ‘Er Majesty’s Jollies — soldier an’ sailor too!
Their work was done when it ‘adn’t begun; they was younger nor me an’ you;
Their choice it was plain between drownin’ in ‘eaps an’ bein’ mopped by the screw,
So they stood an’ was still to the Birken’ead drill, soldier an’ sailor too

[Dr. Ursus]

The Churchill quote was quite funny.

[hinckley buzzard]

Our language has changed in response. We no longer speak of "virtues" -- a word that connotes traits of character strongly and universally held. Instead, we prattle on about "values" -- a much more neutered term, suggesting nothing higher than "different strokes for different folks."

This is a key observation, as it relates directly to the education/indoctrination of the youts. Remember the seventies and "values clarification?" A movement to level all values as being equivalent. The only thing was to decide what your own "values" are, no matter how banal or self-serving they may have been. No rational evaluation or critical judgment was allowed. I think it is now implicit in the indoctrination process.

I raised the idea here in a comment some time back that conservatives need to talk about virtues as distinct from liberals and their "values" but got little response. Maybe this article will stimulate some thoughts.

[miss marmelstein]

Survivors complained bitterly about the bad behavior of the crew of the Andrea Doria.

[loveliberty2]

Does anyone else find it ironic that every day now, we watch a disaster being played out off the coast of Italy, all the result of a captain whose arrogance and misguided notion of right and wrong led him to steer the great ship onto rocks and away from its intended purpose?

Even as the ship was sinking and screams from passengers were filling the darkness, he asserted that he was in charge and ignored the danger, despite thousands of years of navigation history documenting that ships on rocks result in death and destruction.

Nations and their elected or appointed "captains" can learn lessons from this ongoing object lesson before us.

President Jefferson's First Inaugural contained these words:

"The essential principles of our Government... form the bright constellation which has gone before us and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation. The wisdom of our sages and blood of our heroes have been devoted to their attainment. They should be the creed of our political faith, the text of civic instruction, the touchstone by which to try the services of those we trust; and should we wander from them in moments of error or of alarm, let us hasten to retrace our steps and to regain the road which alone leads to peace, liberty and safety." --1st Inaugural Address, 1801

[Don W]

[muawiyah]

The biggest single complaint was that the crew didn't let down the lifeboats ON THE SIDE where the ship was underwater.

Lady I saved from a fire that totally consumed her apartment right down to the paper on the backside of her plaster walls complained that I didn't let her continue trying to put out the fire.

Her boss, Edward Bennett Williams (Founder of Williams and Connolly, a premiere Washington DC law firm) thought it was fantastic ~ she was his personal secretary ~ IRREPLACEABLE he said ~ and he offered me free law service for whatever I might need.

[Ditto]

A good person is like a great tree they shelter others and bring out the best in those around them. I would value a good person more then an ounce of gold.

I lost a good person last week, a good friend and someone who you could trust you life to. Nature taking it's course I suppose.

What you say is true, but I would say the value of having a friend like that is more than all the gold in the world. He made all around him, friend or stranger, a little bit better just by being there.

[dog breath]

I have had the blessing of knowing a few such people in my life and you are right they are beyond value. I deeply miss the ones that have left this world. Single individuals can make all the difference in our lives and in many of life’s situations. I am not ready to write off humanity as long as there are such people. My condolences on your loss.