Sunday, Feb. 02, 2003
space tragedy, posted at 2:15 a.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com I slept in until after noon, and woke up to discover the very sad news of the space travel tragedy. Seeing the astronauts' families broke my heart. One thing, though: I was a bit surprised that the coverage reached Sept. 11 proportions - it was on every network for hours, when I don't feel any more relative sadness at this event than I did at, say, the Baltimore mother and her five kids who were burned to death in their home after they reported a drug dealer to police recently, and that barely made national news. I was even out with Renee tonight, an astonomer, and she said that it's big news in the industry, but was shocked to see its huge coverage on TV.Just a couple of hours into the broadcast, the news people were theorizing why this tragedy seemed to have less resonance than the Challenger tragedy. It was like they were disappointed. Personally, I feel like the relentless coverage was shoved down our throats on this one. I'm saddened by it, but these seven people lived amazing lives and accomplished things that few human beings in the history of the world will ever accomplish. What this tragedy did more than anything for me was help me realize the riskiness of space exploration. There hasn't been a major tragedy in sixteen years now, so it's easy to forget that this is a risky, challenging endeavor. This type of event sheds light on the lack of knowledge that man has about space exploration, and how much still needs to be learned. It helped me respect the profession of being an astronaut more, as these people do risk their lives.
That being said, a police officer loses his life on the job every 39 hours in the United States. I will not weep for these astronauts any more than I do for them. Or for the 15-year old kid murdered in the city last week. I cannot place more grief on one sort of person over another.
Tonight, as I drift off to sleep, I will be thinking about these astronauts' families and trying to send them thoughts of strength and hope.
**
Watching George W. Bush speak after the event was excruciating. The news broadcast replayed Reagan's speech after the 1986 Challenger explosion, and it was resonant, griveing, and almost poetic. Bush's was awkward and reminded me of one of my students using a thesaurus to pick out big words to use without really being comfortable with them. I'm sure he was sad, but the concentration it seemed to take for him to look sincere and grief-stricken was unbearable to watch.
I can't believe we elected this man.