Saturday, February 01, 2003

Where Were You When The Shuttle Went Down?

I was in 7th grade the last time the shuttle went down. I remember the way rumors spread, leaving disbelief and a sense of unreality in their wake. I remember the schoolday scramble to dispatch televisions to the classrooms, to turn them on, to sit in silence watching the Challenger blow up over and over and over again.

To the schoolday it felt, after all, much like 9/11, although by then I was on the teacher side of the fence, the one in charge of the TVs, stepping forward as Media Specialist to help students make sense of the way the television was playing the same footage of fire and brimstone over and over again, and to turn off the TV when there was nothing new under the sun but inane, stunned newscasters' reactions, as if they were for all of us.

And this time it's the Columbia. CNN's report says don't touch the fallen debris; it might be toxic. A moment of silence, please, for the hopes and dreams of a people who really need it and, most especially, for the families and friends of:


Commander Rick D Husband

William C McCool

Michael P Anderson

David M Brown

Kalpana Chawla

Laurel Clark

Ilan Ramon



Amen.

posted by boyhowdy | 12:42 PM |

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