The Importance of Recording Commemorations

In the earlier years of our profession, historians clung to the stories of the wealthy and famous, however, the new generations of historians have begun to document the lives of the "everyday people" in society.  Keeping a record of these commemorations gives us the chance to analyze how societies react to certain events.  The 9/11 Memorial website is a perfect example of this, while some individuals feel that these submissions should be carefully combed through for legitimacy, I feel otherwise.  These are the personal accounts from individuals and how the events that unfolded on 9/11 affected them.  I do find it somewhat amusing that the same individuals that discredit these submissions are also the individuals clinging to historic journals and take the words in them as fact.  The submissions on the memorial page are no less important than the words found in journals.

I think there are many individuals that discredit current documents and journals, but fail to realize that one day these accounts will become history.  It is crucial that we as a society document our lives so that historians in the future have the opportunity to research the events that unfold in our lives.  Imagine the vast amounts of information we would have if Facebook and Twitter were around during the Civil War.  Tragedies that occur often have varying degrees of impact on different areas of the world, but also within different cultures that exist in those different areas.  Many individuals would argue that people rarely put a full truth on their virtual profiles, however, the subjects and posts can be useful although it may not be the truth.  It often expresses what is popular at the time, and also can show trends within those popular subjects.  The more information that we are able to record, the more of an impact that information can make in the future.