Shuttle Columbia

[stark]

selective sympathy/mourning as you like to call it, i do not to... i feel just as bad for those 7 as i do for someone who probably just died as i'm typing this. i'm not incensitive or anything, but i fail to see the specialness of these 7 people... yeah, they were trying to "further mankind's progress into the unknown" and there are risks in doing so, and i'm sure those 7 knew that. there's also a danger every time you get into your car, because there could be a crash... yeah, so when you drive you're not learning about the furure or anything, but i think it's still similar. people are dying over in afghanistan, fighting for what the truely believe in, and i'm sure they know they put their life on the line, so it's 'not a big surprise' when they die. just because this was rare/unexpected doesn't make it horrendous. i can see why you feel bad for 7 people dying trying to find out stuff, but people are dying on the other side of the world (from us) that won't get so much as their name in the obituaries.

[PaulOakenfold]

Though it's sad, you have to know that each time, no matter how technologicaly advanced a space shuttle is (in this case not very much), Astronauts agree that they are risking their life and that when they take off there is a big chance that they won't be coming back. I'm not so much saddened by their loss as I am sad for their families

To anybody that doesn't think this is a sad event should go back to their satanic occults. You are very right about the other crashes in the world not being shown even as close as the shuttle crash has been shown in the past hour or so, but I don't believe the media is blowing this out of porportion. Because America has such an influence on the international media of course this is going to get more airtime than that of Korea and such, but that doesn't make it more or less tragic... just more noticable.

[Mayo Inc.]

outer space is scary.

what a horrible way to die. Hadn't columbia been on a billion missions? (note: I'm not saying it's old just wondering about it's flight time) It had always been in top shape. Poor astronauts.

I THINK IRAQ USE OUTRE SPACE WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUTION TO BLOW OF THE SPACE SHIP. BOMB IRAQ BEFORE THEY BOMB US!

U-A-S-A U-S-A US-A

[Yoshiba]

Originally posted by stark
selective sympathy/mourning as you like to call it, i do not to... i feel just as bad for those 7 as i do for someone who probably just died as i'm typing this. i'm not incensitive or anything, but i fail to see the specialness of these 7 people... yeah, they were trying to "further mankind's progress into the unknown" and there are risks in doing so, and i'm sure those 7 knew that. there's also a danger every time you get into your car, because there could be a crash... yeah, so when you drive you're not learning about the furure or anything, but i think it's still similar. people are dying over in afghanistan, fighting for what the truely believe in, and i'm sure they know they put their life on the line, so it's 'not a big surprise' when they die. just because this was rare/unexpected doesn't make it horrendous. i can see why you feel bad for 7 people dying trying to find out stuff, but people are dying on the other side of the world (from us) that won't get so much as their name in the obituaries.

oh i get what you're saying, why do these 7 get such extensive coverage. the simple answer is that it makes great tv. they can fill up hours of airtime while receiving a large audience of both people who grew up watching the space program and those who are interested in hearing about it.

bigger audience = bigger ratings.

[Dystrophy]

Columbia has been on about 20 missions. It has received a recent overhaul, it being "old" is a non issue as you can make anything last forever as long as you treat it like they did. Its not a car where you leave it outside in the rain, a shuttle is taken care of and any faults get replaced.

[Machine of God]

i always felt that astronaughts took all the credit for something the engineers and scientists really should get the credit for. Now i realise that astronaughts must be pretty brave themselves for doing that shit. They died heros.

[Nickname]

Originally posted by Troll King
And shame on all of you who deem yourselves worthy of criticizing who, what, when, where or how other people choose to mourn. Yes, people die all the time and receive less notice. That does not mean that it is wrong to mourn here. That is in no way as bad as using their deaths (or the deaths of countless others) to make your own political statement.

Auto accidents, suiciding bombings, natural deaths and starvation happen all the time, however this is different. These people had there life cut short by something most of us will never have to worry about. yes i could die in a car crash 2morrow BUT thats a lot more likely than me dieing in a space shuttle accident. It's modern technology and it shows us how vulnerable we really are.

[Dystrophy]

However vulnerable you may think we are now, humans used to be even more so without technology.

[Mat Hoffman]

How are we supposed to not know, the news kept cutting into the Young Stars game and the NHL All-Star skills competetion yesterday, MAN it made me mad. O yea, sorry to hear or something.

[Superted]

Well 6 americans down, I'm concerned about the waste of materials though, I hope the test results were sent to NASA before they went otherise it'd been a waste of fuel too, shame.

Originally posted by Yoshiba
i hope george w bush doesnt make this an oppurtunity to talk about iraq.

lol

[Epinephrine]

I heard about this tragedy as it unfolded basically.

I was in Baltimore for a school thingy, and in a large room filled with American (and some Canadian) students. Suddenly, they turn on the projector (hooked up to the room's computer) and they went to CNN.com. On the screen popped up the news. They clicked on the article. The room which had previously been filled with loud conversation, was suddenly erieely quiet.

As we all collectively read the article, we eventually scrolled to the point where it mentioned that the first ever Israeli astronaut was killed in the explosion. There were now quiet whispers about terrorism, and it was only a few minutes later that we all collectively realized that terrorism could be safely ruled out.

But for those few minutes, being in Baltimore, only an hour's drive away from Washington DC in a room full of American university students from all across America, it was a very strange feeling indeed.

For most of us, we were all too young when Challenger happened to have remembered it or to realize the magnitude of what had transpired, but now we understood.

For myself it was a huge shock. I probably know more about the space program that most people, and certainly more about the Shuttle. Immediately I had thought about all the plausible scenarios about what happened. I still believe that the shuttle either hit something in re-entry or hit something in space which damaged it. Either that or some fuel line ruptured.

Either way ever since I was very young I've always been interested in space and science. Exploring space and going to space has been the ultimate achievement of mankind. It has in a way symbolized all that was right about the world.

Here we are on the brink of war. Here we are with millions dying all around the world from disease and starvation. Here we are when racism and bigotry are everywhere, and hate is the operative word of the day. Yet the space program, symbolized by the Space Shuttle represents something different.

In a way, the Space Shuttle represents a collective dream of the human race, that there's something more to us than just our everyday lives. By going into the brave unknown, not in the name of politics, not in the name of money, but in the name of the search for knowledge, the name of science, the shuttle represents something better. People from all races, religions and many countries in the world have been invited to join this dream.

On that one day on Saturday, the dream while not crushed was dealt a severe blow. Here was the symbol of what I believe symbolizes the best of what America is, the best of what the human race can do destroyed. Here was something which had been around for longer than I was alive, something which had spearheaded space exploration and here it was that it crumbled as it fell from the sky.

I grieve for the seven who lost their lives, but most of all I grieve for NASA. I would hope that in a time of worries about war and terrorism, in a time of worries about the economy, and a time where dreams seem so far away that we don't forget this dream. That we don't ever abandon this search for knowledge. That we don't ever abandon the good that the shuttle represents in how all of us were invited, all of us were welcome in it's embrace. Because once we forget our dreams, we destroy what makes us special, and what drives the human race.

Let's not forget.

-Epi

[Epinephrine]

Reposted from the New York Times, Op-Ed
==============================
The Best of America
By BOB HERBERT

Astronauts speeding in from outer space, 40 miles above the earth, 16 minutes from touchdown . . .

We don't pay much attention to our astronauts until calamity strikes. And yet the grief that accompanies the spectacular loss of these brave strangers, men and women with unfamiliar names like David M. Brown and Laurel Clark, is extraordinary.

The posthumous television images of the smiling, healthy, enthusiastic crew of the space shuttle Columbia touch feelings that are usually reserved for those much closer to us. They're very difficult to watch.

For Americans, in some sense, it's like watching the loss of our better selves. The astronauts may not get a tremendous amount of attention under ordinary circumstances, but they are the last unspoiled American heroes. They have not been laid low by scandal, or exposed as phonies. They carry none of the taint of bad faith that clings so stubbornly to so many in politics, the world of business and the media. Their motives, as far as we can tell, are still pure. They have come to embody whatever remains of the American ideal.

Dr. Clark, a Navy flight surgeon, had been conducting life-science experiments aboard the Columbia. The experiments were part of a wide range of studies by the crew that were aimed at improving the health and safety of humans on Earth and in space.

At a time when much of the world is gripped by the oppressive fear of war and terror, the crew of the Columbia was devoting its considerable talent to work that was creative, cooperative and constructive. Theirs was a mission of peace.

Gen. Omar Bradley, a hero of World War II, delivered a speech in Boston in 1948 that is remarkably appropriate for the violent and chaotic world of 2003. "The world has achieved brilliance without wisdom," he said, "power without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical midgets. We know more about war than we know of peace, more about killing than we know about living."

Americans in 2003 are not just struggling with forces that are wildly uncertain and dangerous. We're also struggling, on a variety of fronts, with doubts about the direction and the soundness of our national mission. There is a uniform commitment to fighting terror, but public support for an invasion of Iraq varies considerably from week to week. Bitter arguments are raging over civil rights, civil liberties and immigration policies. And there is nothing close to a consensus on the fairness of the nation's tax policies and social welfare programs.

Mixed with the anxiety over war and terror and the threat posed by a weak domestic economy is an underlying feeling that this great and powerful nation could as Jack Kennedy contended do better, that its ideals are still important and that you court real danger if you continue giving them short shrift.

When our attention is drawn to the astronauts, even in the midst of tragedy, we are pleased to see them as powerful symbols of the most admirable aspects of American life. They are not superhumans. Saturday showed that they're fragile like the rest of us. But they hold in trust for us the spirit of adventure and exploration and decency and accomplishment that is so important to our view of ourselves as Americans.

No one wants to look in the mirror and see something low or mean. The astronauts help save us from that.

President Bush praised the crew of the Columbia for its "service to all humanity." He said, "These astronauts knew the dangers and they faced them willingly, knowing they had a high and noble purpose in life."

That was not hyperbole, but the simple truth.

Some time will go by and the press of world events will cause the astronauts and all they represent to slip again from our consciousness, which is too bad. It would be so much better if this terrible tragedy could somehow prompt a renewed commitment to America's "high and noble" ideals and aspirations. One quick example: The nation's great wealth and good fortune could be used to build a sparkling new generation of schools to educate the millions upon millions of young people whose talents and energy will have to be called upon if the U.S. is to continue to flourish.

That is one way in which we could honor the astronauts whose lives and tragic deaths remind us of our own deeply held aspirations, our ideals, those aspects of ourselves that we admire most.
=======================

-Epi

[Ace]

Tragedy has hit both our countries on the same weekend. The shuttle and seven 15 year olds caught in an avalanche in the Rocky mountains.
Click here

[stark]

Yeah so now that Epi told his life story...

"Here we are on the brink of war. Here we are with millions dying all around the world from disease and starvation. Here we are when racism and bigotry are everywhere, and hate is the operative word of the day."-Epi (i'm too lazy to quote it the real way)

And yet, these 7 are so recognized, all over the news and everywhere. In school there was a moment of silence for them, which actually got me mad. Why not silence for those dying everwhere? Why not those seven 15 year olds?

[ConcreteSchlyrd]

Originally posted by stark
Why not those seven 15 year olds?

Originally posted in that news link above
Surrounding the grief are questions as to why the group went skiing Saturday in an area where there was a considerable avalanche risk. Just two weeks ago, another snow slide in the region killed seven adults who were skiing in the backcountry.

Most likely because the 15 year-olds were doing something that was risky, if not stupid. They're both dreadfully tragic, don't get me wrong, I just don't think you can equate a group of scientists working on advancing the race with seven fifteen year-olds trying to find the freshest powder.