National Day of mourning

far_from_sane · 02-01-2003, 08:07 PM

My heart goes out to the families of those 7 brave Astronaughts!

BrenSaSC2 · 02-01-2003, 10:29 PM

Definitely with you on that one-I've been watching the coverage all day at work...another rough loss for America

CelticShadow · 02-01-2003, 10:34 PM

It's almost surreal, like I don't want to believe it happened. Such a horrible thing to have happen, the loss of lives. One astronaut said it best today when he said "It's a passion, even with the risks involved, we all know it's going to happen sooner or later, we just never know when or why".

far_from_sane · 02-02-2003, 02:57 AM

It was definetly a real shocker, I stil wont forget 9/11 as that scared the sh*t out of me, I could only imagine how it was for you all that live by there.

mkbuker · 02-02-2003, 03:57 AM

I woke up this morning and started flipping thru the channels on the tv and ran across fox news and saw that Columbia was lost and my first words were "Oh ****, this sucks", and the second words were prayers for the 7 lost, families, friends, and our nation.

jeep45238 · 02-02-2003, 07:05 AM

This does suck majorly on a personal level.

But I know I'm going to take flak on this (I know we're going to discuss this for sure in sociology Monday), why is everyone making such a huge deal about it? Hundreds of people are maimed and murdered daily, yet they get no publicity at all. 7 people die quickly (and hopefully painlessly) and they get hours and hours of air time. It's just because of the word "astronaut". Fame gives ordinary people things that everyone else doesn't get.

It is a tragity, and I see how we should take steps to prevent another one in the future, but I also see it unfair as how 7 people unknown to most of society before today get all of this air time.

Matt · 02-02-2003, 07:15 AM

Probably because they are considered heroes for serving their country and risking thier lives going into outerspace. On the news they always say when a plane is shot down in Afghanistan or wherever and soldiers die, why because they risk their lives for our safety. That's what I think though.

jeep45238 · 02-02-2003, 07:32 AM

No offense, but they weren't risking their lives. The astronaughts mainly are there for scientific missions or sattelite repairs. This was scientific.

Pilots and soliders, totally understandable. They do risk their lives daily. As do police, fire fighters, coast gaurd, the reserves, and more.

No offense, but they really warn'e heros. Just really smart people that strapped themselves on top of a rocket. I know I'm gonna catch flak for this point of view, but that's fine.

Wintermute · 02-02-2003, 06:51 PM

jeep,
Do you think that riding on a shuttle with 270,000 moving parts and a million gallons of HIGHLY FLAMMABLE fuel on it isn't dangerous? Do you think that's not risking your life? How the HELL can you say that? The astronauts risk their lives EACH TIME they ride the shuttle, each time they step out of the shuttle to do a walk in space, and they risk it each time they LAND. Do you think that it's a matter of "oh let's land?" BULL****. You bring up the fact that people are killed daily with no publicity... Tell me, would you like it if it was? Would you like it if you, your friends, or your family was killed on live television?

This is the second shuttle I've seen destroyed, and the first that I've seen fall apart damn near over my own ****ing house, so don't you DARE trivialize them or this flight because of "who cares?" When you strap your ass down into that chair and you ride that thing up and come back down in one piece, then you can do it all you want. Until then, don't even think it's not a dangerous job.

By the way, do you think the astronauts are treated like gods? Bull****. They're not paid any more money than our military pilots. They don't live in mansions and drive 'Vettes or Ferraris. You wanna talk to one of the astronauts and ask him how he lives? Fred Haise of Apollo 13 and the Enterprise test flights lives 20 minutes away from me, and I know him well enough to tell you that if you're under that impression, you're SADLY mistaken.

Josh

jeep45238 · 02-02-2003, 07:14 PM

I know that man. I've also seen two shuttles destroyed.

What I'm saying is they don't risk their lives to protect the country. It really isn't necessary, that's all.

I'm not degrading them at all, and I'm not giving the who cares attitude. I feel for the families, but I also feel for the hundreds of thousands that never get a blink of the eye from anyone (how's that for the who cares attitude?). Before this, no one knew who they were. I know that they aren't rich or ride in fancy sports cars. I never did. All I'm saying is that the title 'astronaught' made these 7 people somehow more important than the rest of the slain Americans that are no longer with us, and that's not right.