Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site peora.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxn!ihnp4!houxm!hjuxa!petsd!peora!jer From: jer@peora.UUCP (J. Eric Roskos) Newsgroups: net.columbia Subject: Re: A new Shuttle to replace Challenger: What Name? Message-ID: <1962@peora.UUCP> Date: Fri, 7-Feb-86 08:56:02 EST Article-I.D.: peora.1962 Posted: Fri Feb 7 08:56:02 1986 Date-Received: Sun, 9-Feb-86 06:40:08 EST References: <224@imagen.UUCP> <271@tolerant.UUCP> <3035@umcp-cs.UUCP> Organization: Concurrent Computer Corporation, Orlando, Fl Lines: 33 > ... it would be a bit unfair to single out [Ms. McCauliffe] so > dramatically ... One of the things that initially made the shuttle incident seem particularly tragic to me was the idea that Ms. McCauliffe was just an ordinary citizen, a teacher who had in essence won a sort of "contest" to be on the shuttle, but then it had turned out so tragically. Subsequently, though, I read her essay which won her the position on the shuttle. In it, she explained that all her life she had been interested in the space program, and had wanted to be an astronaut, but had been discouraged from it by the societal pressures upon women which discouraged women from becoming astronauts. She concluded by saying that, while she couldn't "start her life over" and become an astronaut now that things had changed, this gave her an opportunity to participate in the program. I have since come to think of her more as someone who was apparently well familiar with the nature of the space program, including apparently the risks, and someone who, had things been different, might have been one of the regular crew herself. This does not in any way reduce the tragedy of the disaster, but (sort of like the parable of the workers who were hired in the evening but paid the same as those who worked all day, I guess) makes me think of her more as "one of the crew". Thus I think any monument to the 7 astronauts should honor them equally. -- UUCP: Ofc: jer@peora.UUCP Home: jer@jerpc.CCUR.UUCP CCUR DNS: peora, pesnta US Mail: MS 795; CONCURRENT Computer Corp. SDC; (A Perkin-Elmer Company) 2486 Sand Lake Road, Orlando, FL 32809-7642 xxxxx4xxx "There are other places that are also the world's end ... But this is the nearest ... here and in England." -TSE