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My heroes
02.03.03 @ 09:57
Diaryring of the Day:
Now Playing: My pop punk cd.

Sorry I didn't update yesterday. I have been very withdrawn. Saturday's tragedy had me reminiscing about when I was little and it was very painful.

When I was about six or so, my family and I had gone down to Florida to visit my great uncle Mac and at that time there was a shuttle launch. One of the first launches that people could get into since Challenger, the first that my uncle could be home for. We all got up early I don't think that I actually slept the night before. We all sat in the backyard, near the shallow end of the pool. My family, my great uncle and his wife, a military officer that was a friend of the family, and some of my uncle's neighbors. Everyone was talking and then it went dead silent. You could hear the shuttle about to be launched. The countdown. The rockets lit. Then you could see the shuttle slowly going up, slowly moving out of sight. Six years old and I wanted to be an astronaut. I told my great uncle whom I love dearly and the military officer, I forget his name and rank but he overheard me and said "Little Lady, you can do anything you want." At six I knew that he wasn't pulling the I'll say this to be nice. He meant it and I believed him. I still do although my yearning to be an astronaut has died. At that moment I truly decided that I would do something with the government. Here a government official was telling a six year old girl, now realize that this is 1989, that she ccould do anything. I wish that I knew him today. Well after the shuttle launch, we went inside to eat. My aunt Jen (Mac's wife) gave me a package of fruit snacks because I hated almost anything that the adults ate at that point in my life. I asked the military officer if he would like one and he said yes, took one and then he lifted me up on his lap. I ate my fruit snacks while he ate his finger sandwich. The rest of the trip I cannot remember, just that morning.

Saturday when I found out about Space Shuttle Columbia, my heart sank. I wanted to crawl into a hole. I wish that I could talk to my uncle Mac and to that military officer. I wanted to know as much as I could as well. I started to read articles at MSNBC and CNN. I stumbled upon an article about the Iraqis and what they had to say and I was devastated. To them, this was God taking revenge on us Americans for our working with Israel. For allowing an Israeli astronaut on our flight. I wanted to die. I couldn't believe it. I can not believe that God would take revenge on that which was created by God. Didn't God promise that there would no longer be any destruction at God's hand after The Flood? Or is that my wrong thinking? After a while I just laid on my bed, my eyes watering, a tear falling down my cheek.

We continued to wastch MSNBC and I was agast at how the press kept questioning why we were still going out into space. They did not see the point. It appeared as if they were trying to push ending the space program. No. We cannot do that. Doing so would hinder human thinking. Curiosity part of what makes us human. Being able to take something that would dumbfound any other mammal, any other being for that matter, taking that and being about to explore and discover and understand, that is what it means to be human. Take away our ablity to explore space and you put limits on what humans can understand, grasp through knowledge. Yes there are risks, but if no one took those risks we would still be living in caves, fearful of the dark, and unable to leave the small community that we live in. The risks that humans have taken have brought us multitudes of languages, various cultures, they have brought us fire, travel, global communication. We have taken risks for so long, why should we stop now. Rick D. Husband, William C. McCool, Michael P. Anderson, David M. Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark and Ilan Ramon took a risk and I am beyond grateful for the risk they took. Their willingness to take this risk is heroic. They are heroes to me and I will not forget them, I will not forget Saturday February 1st 2003.

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