Women and children first
From Doug's blog:
On Tuesday night, July 18, 2006 a Royal Navy warship-HMS Gloucester left Beirut carrying children and pregnant women in a large-scale evacuation of Britons fleeing the Israeli onslaught of Lebanon. The HMS Gloucester, a Type 42 destroyer, had about 180 priority evacuees on board, as it set off on the 150 mile trip to Cyprus. Those priority evacuees were all women and children. Ninety-four years after the sinking of the Titanic the British Navy still adheres to the doctrine of "Women and Children First."The situation continues to escalate and it is hard to even keep up with the constantly changing news reports. I cannot imagine the anxiety these people must be experiencing. As we go about our everyday seemingly carefree lives, let us continue to uphold the many who only know imminent danger as their everyday existence.
Click here to read the full story.
posted by Crystal Paine at 2:43 PM
10 Comments:
My immediate neighbor is Lebanese. They lost 20 of their relatives in a bombing last week. They were all huddled together in the home. The only two that survived had gone outside to look for a few minutes. They were thrown from the house and are now in critical condition. This situation is so sad. My neighbors are Muslim. We have an excellent relationship. I am praying that our family can offer them comfort and healing in a time of great hurting and stress.
Unbelievable...I can't imagine experiencing anything like this. I just told Aaron, my DH, that if this kind of a situation occurred, I'd stay with him, regardless of who gets to go and who stays for the time being....His response? "I'd make them take you away, even forcibly, to ensure that YOU were safe." He's a gentleman... :) But I'm so blessed and thankful to be here in Wisconsin, where the scariest thing is 'naders...I have much to be thankful for.
I dunno. Is it really gentlemanly to advocate the use of force to override a woman's clearly stated wishes to be with her husband in his time of need?
I would definitely stay with my husband if something like that happened, although in my case, my husband's disability makes it imperative that I see to his safety before my own.
It also wasn't clear to me from skimming the article whether all women were automatically saved first or just pregnant women. Either way, I certainly wish everyone involved the best.
A friend of mine's sister and family were trapped in Lebanon and were in Beirut when it was bombed. They had to pay their way out of the city and be driven 400 miles to a safer location. If not for the husband's place of work, they would have been trapped there as the company helped pay the flight home since they had been there on a business trip. The scene in Lebanon is a sad one indeed. There are innocent civilians and foreign citizens trapped there. We must pray for their safe evacuation.
HF: No one was forced to go and I hardly doubt that this is the time to be calling Andrea's husband's gentlemanliness into question. Any man who is putting his wife's life before his own is quite the gentleman in my book. There aren't many men of that caliber left in this day and age.
Spunky and Shannon: Thanks for sharing. Oh how my heart goes out to these people! We know nothing of difficulties and hardship!
*Sigh* We found out that one of my parents' friend was killed in the bombing...he went home for his mother's funeral.
I know I'm too removed from this and couldn't even begin to understand, but it all just seems so senseless...
All we can do is pray...
And HF: If you knew how willfull I can be, and stubborn, you'd understand my husband's comments. They'd literally have to pull me from him.
Crystal, thank you so much for mentioning this on your blog. My family on both sides is 100 percent Lebanese and Catholic, and we naturally have family in Lebanon. It's been a difficult time lately and I truly am grateful that all of you are praying. This site is constantly a blessing to me.
This war is really horrible. I it is interesting that the British Navy still hold to that.
I guess I would stay with my husband if I didn't have children. However, given the choice I would have to go so my children would not be left in danger.
In war situations, I strongly believe that the women should be removed before the men.
Oh dear. It wasn't my intention to insult Andrea's husband. I am sure he has the best of intentions. And, although I don't know him, I imagine that he is in fact a gentleman.
I also don't quarrel with the notion that a gentleman will do his utmost to save his wife if he is in a position to do so. (As a lady, I view my duty towards my husband in the same way.) My only issue is with the notion of overriding my spouses wishes by force.
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