The challenger was gone. I watched the faces of the families, who were gathered to view the liftoff. It was eerie, because none of them seemed to know what was going on... or at least, they were trying to believe that what they were seeing was "normal" and, somehow, the shuttle would eventually break through the huge cloud of smoke and continue it's ascent.
"They had a hunger to explore the universe and discover its truths. They wished to serve, and they did. They served all of us...
"And I want to say something to the school children of America who were watching the live coverage of the shuttle's takeoff. I know it is hard to understand, but sometimes painful things like this happen. It's all part of the process of exploration and discovery. It's all part of taking a chance and expanding man's horizons. The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave. The Challenger crew was pulling us into the future, and we'll continue to follow them....
"The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved good-bye and "slipped the surly bonds of earth" to "touch the face of God."
President Ronald Reagan
9 comments:
I remember we were watching that at my school too...everyone was so excited because it was the first teacher to go up....
I was in 3rd grade and I still remember it like it was yesterday.
Reagan had great speechwriters. But that takes nothing away from the little talk. It was in supreme good taste.
High Flight
by John Gillespie Magee, Jr
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, --and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of --Wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air...
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark or even eagle flew --
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
It was a big day...a teacher going up with them....we were watching at school..I will never forget it either.
I was watching it live in class at school they had to cancel school for the rest of the day. I will never forget.
The question "Where were you when ..." always makes me wonder if perhaps a small bit of each of us wasn't right there with them. Whether it was Kennedy's assassination, the Challenger tragedy, 9/11 ... It would be kind of nice to think they all took a smidgeon of us with them ... for them ~ so that they didn't go alone, for us ~ it's what makes us human - we truly 'hurt' ... a teensy piece of something inside us dies, yet builds character at the same time.
Nice post, as always, Dave.
I remember hearing about it as I was coming home from my first batch of midterms at the high school. The weird thing was that on my way in that morning I has the strangest feeling something was going to go wrong with the flight. Needless to say, I didn't sleep well that night.
One of the teachers at our middle school was a runner-up to go on the flight. I can only imagine how he felt when it happened.
I think I was in 3rd grade when this happened. I still remember it though. My grandparents lived the winters in Florida at the time and used to watch the lift offs from their house. They actually saw this happen. Pretty chilling.
Post a Comment