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I felt compelled to say this, I know that messages like this are a dime a
dozen, so I really don't expect to be heard. I felt compelled to say what is
in my heart regardless.
I would have put this in an Off-topic, since it really doesn't relate to LEGO,
but there is no lugnet.offtopic.statement. My apologies if I offend anyone for
not placing this elsewhere.
I read today on a forum a reply to a post about the Columbia (it wasn't
Lugnet), and though I would have better luck addressing the author of that post
on that forum, I feel my message has a better place to be seen, in this
community of ours.
The author asked why we would consider the crew of the Columbia heroes, or even
hype it up as we have, that hundreds and thousands of people die every week and
we don't flinch. What makes the shuttle accident so much more special, why do
those lives mean more than others. How do we know that the crew became
astronauts not to better mankind but did so for the glory of it all? The
author was flamed and I even think his reply and the thread it started was
removed by a moderator.
But he did have a good question. And in the end, at least as far as I'm
concerned no life is more important than any other life. No one person
deserves to live more than another, and every death should hurt us all.
But of coure it doesn't.
We are hurt more by the deaths that are close to us than those half-way around
the world, and I fault no one for it. It is only understandable that we
Americans would be so much more effected by the deaths of seven astronauts
than those of a few dozen train accident victims or the starving poor in other
countries.
And we here in Houston, in the Clear Lake area feel especially close to NASA
and the space program. If I were to climb my roof, I could see the old rockets
of the Johnson Space Center. It's only ten minutes away from my house, and
that's counting driving through the entirety of my subdivision.
I went to an elementary school named after one of the victims of the Apollo 1
fire. In that same elementary school I witnessed the death of the Challenger
crew so many years ago. Today I looked down the street and saw that very same
elementary school just hours after learning of the Columbia accident. My
father has spent over 35 years of his life working with NASA on the space
program. He worked on every single Apollo mission, and three Space Stations.
My father lead the team that designed the life support ring's computer and
systems for the Saturn V rocket. My father sat aboard more than one Apollo
module to make sure those systems worked, as he likes to say, his fingerprints
are on the moon.
We here in the Clear Lake area feel especially close to the Space Program. I
have astronauts as neighbors, I have NASA technicians as family friends. My
barber has a signed photograph of almost every male astronaut that has ever
trained at JSC hanging on his walls.
But are those people that died today aboard the Columbia heroes? That is, of
course, up to the individual to decide. But before you make a decision, you
really should think about it. We like to automatically put the name 'Hero' on
anyone who's death brought about change or had some special signifigance, but I
say we are a little to free with that word. It's lost some of it's meaning I
think. We said that the people who died in the World Trade Center were heroes,
and personally I disagree. No, I don't like what happened, and I grieve for
those who died and their families. But there was nothing, by my definition
anyway, 'heroic' about being in the wrong place at the wrong time. There's
nothing 'heroic' about dieing in a train or starving to death on the other side
of the world, IMO.
According to my dictionary, a hero is someone who is greatly admired or shows
great courage. To me, a hero is someone who does something that is not
required, and does so in spite of the risks involved.
Now I don't know why the seven people aboard Columbia became astronauts. I
have no idea if they did it to better mankind, or to challenge themselves, or
to reap the fame and glory. But does it even matter?
To me, NASA and the space program mean a lot more than just an enterprise to
explore space. To me, the Space Program represents something that is severly
lacking in this world - the realization of dreams into reality. How many
children today want to become astronauts? How many of you wanted to be one
when you were younger? I think a better question would be how many people
DIDN'T want to know what it would be like to be thrust into space at some point
in their lives. We have so few things anymore in this world that inspire
people, so few things that represent a dream that is achievable.
I know that America's space program is what it is today not because we wanted
to explore, but really because we wanted to do better than the U.S.S.R. But to
me, it has evolved from what it was to what it is now, a place of dreams.
I think the words of JFK ring true more so now than they did when he said them.
I don't remember the exact quote, but it was something like: We do not choose
to go to the moon and do the other things because they are easy, we choose to
do them because they are hard.
So what does it even matter why the astronauts became what they were? If they
wanted to better mankind, or challenge themselves, or even to reap the fame and
glory, they all had the dream to do so, they worked hard for it, and they
achieved it. We dream to return to the moon someday, we dream to go to Mars.
And mankind will make it there, it is only a question of when, perhaps not in
my lifetime. This is why I say, to me, the space program means more than just
the exploration of space, but the realization of dreams.
The crew of the Columbia knew the risks when they signed up. They knew
something could go wrong. They went up anyway. The went in spite of the
risks. For whatever reason that they went, they went just the same.
So are they heroes? I'd like to think they are. They weren't in the wrong
place at the wrong time, they volunteered to be where they were. They
understood the risks. The accepted what might happen to them.
But to me, they didn't go up astronauts and come back heroes. To me, they were
heroes before they were shot up into space. They represented the hopes and
dreams of thousands of people, and though they died, those hopes and dreams
remain.
For Heroes may fade away, but dreams will never die.
So this is my response. We pay so much attention to this horrible accident
because they were heroes. While their lives mean no more than any other lives
lost today, or yesterday, or all the days that have or will pass, the dreams
they took with them into space are more valuable than any gem or treasure
known. And though they did die, those dreams will live on, beyond this event,
and beyond our lives as well.
I can only hope to be so fortunate as they, to be so close to heaven when it is
my turn to become just a memory, and pass my dreams on to others.
--Anthony
Lugnet member #1312
http://www.ozbricks.com/ikros
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