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[QUOTE]Originally posted by Middy Seafort: [QB] I published this essay on my intial thougths on the Columbia over at the Subspace BBS (which I published under my real name, not my board name). I present it all to you as well: [QUOTE] [i]A Time to Mourn. A Time to Heal. [/i] Initial Thoughts on the Tragedy of Space Shuttle Columbia. By Ryan Thomas Riddle "We choose to go to the moon in this decade, and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win." --John Fitzgerald Kennedy Rice University, September 12, 1962 This morning began like any other Saturday morning. I awoke from a lengthy sleep, far longer than I would normally sleep on a weekday morning. My eyes still crunched together in slumber, not wanting to except that it was morning and that the sun was already up, I awoke to the news that another space shuttle had been lost. It took a while for the news to reach me. The television was not set on any of the countless news stations, both network and cable. The front page of the San Diego Union-Tribune had no mention of an incident in the skies; instead, a picture of dogs cooling off at one of the local beaches graced that first news page. I had sat down for a morning meal of cold cereal, when my father came up to me and said, simply, "Have you heard the news, this morning?" "No, I just woke up," I muttered, my eyes still reading the morning funnies. "The shuttle exploded this morning." Another shuttle. Another seven men and women. Another loss. For an instance, I am ten-years old again. It is January 28, 1986. I am sitting in an elementary classroom watching the launch of Space Shuttle Challenger. I am watching seven men and women rise into the skies and to the stars above. But two-minutes into that launch, the Challenger explodes into a bright-star in the daylight sky. Now, sixteen years later, I am hearing the news that another space shuttle has turned into a bright-star in the sky. Seven men and women would not return to their families. As a nation, we will mourn. As a world, we will mourn. As a people, we will mourn. But we will heal. In the past two years, the world has endured change. Shortly after the September 11th attack of the World Trade Center, an essay was published in the New York Times that stated September 11th would forever divided the world into two parts-- before and after. This is another such event. The Space Program has now been divided into two parts, before and after. The Space Program will never be the same. It should never be the same. We, as a people, will never be the same. What next? Indeed, what next. President George W. Bush, son of a former president who was vice-president the day Challanger exploded, said that the space program will continue. It must continue. We must not abandoned the stars. We must never abandon a dream. John Fitzgerald Kennedy told a bunch of young, eager college students in 1962 that we must go to the moon, not because it was easy but because it is hard. Kennedy was right. We cannot be content to do the easy thing. In that same speech, Kennedy quoted William Bradford. I quote that once again because it is an axiom of the human condition. Bradford said at the founding of the Plymouth Bay Colony that "all great and honorable actions are accomplished with great difficulties, and both must be enterprised and overcome with answerable courage." The men and women of Space Shuttle Columbia, like a all those before them, met the challange with answerable courage. They will forever be remember. And it is because of their courage that we cannot give up the stars. Because if we were to give up and never touch the stars again, then they died for nothing. We will return, but now we must take time to mourn. We must take time to heal. We must go to the stars. [/QUOTE] [/QB][/QUOTE]
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