Yesterday was the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the HMS Titanic. One of my best friends loves the 1997 movie (Titanic) that chronicles its demise, and -- although, personally, I find it sappy and long and historically inaccurate to some degree -- I went with her to see it in 3D for her birthday.
I've seen it a bunch of times, but something struck me for the first time while I was watching it this weekend. I realized that I didn't really know much about the actual sinking of the actual HMS Titanic. So, being the nerd I am, I did some research, and there were fascinating effects of the famous disaster (hyperlink to coast guard blog). The US Navy was immediately sent out to patrol the coasts for icebergs -- a job that the US Coast Guard and 13 other nations now share -- after the Titanic went down. In 1913, only months after the Titanic sank, the first Safety of Life at Sea Convention was held, and it's standards still stipulate many of the international safety regulations for maritime trade and travel. Did you know that the sinking of the Titanic is considered by some to be the first international disaster ever?
What does all of this remind you of?
The first thing that jumped into my mind as I read the information was September 11, 2001. I thought of how the airport regulations implemented shortly after are not all that different from what came out of the SOLSC. I remembered the international outcry after America was attacked by terrorists. But then there were other days I thought of: December 7, 1945; August 29, 2005; April 26,1986; November 22,1963. Days of disaster. National disaster. Global disaster. Natural disaster. Human disaster.
People remember these dates.
They stick with us because they are tragic and they bring us together.
They become part of our history.
Our national history. Our personal history. Our global history.
And they repeat, like the parallels between the Titanic and 9/11. And even though new generations are born and people die and forget and personal experiences are lost through endless time and graves and funerals, we're still affected by things like Chernobyl or Hurricane Katrina (to differing degrees of course). Mostly for the reason that they give us all a shared experience of loss -- something easy to bond over.
What do you think tragedy does for the ties of a people, nation, group, or community?
< Histrophile >
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