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From: barb@oliven.UUCP (Barbara Jernigan)
Newsgroups: net.columbia
Subject: Re: Naming Things after the Astronauts
Message-ID: <516@oliven.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 10-Feb-86 18:17:11 EST
Article-I.D.: oliven.516
Posted: Mon Feb 10 18:17:11 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 13-Feb-86 17:57:43 EST
References: <2911@ut-ngp.UUCP> <3046@umcp-cs.UUCP> <2755@amdahl.UUCP>
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Organization: Olivetti ATC; Cupertino, Ca
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> > Moons are for gods; craters are for people.
> > C. Wingate
> 
> And have not these people joined the Gods?
> E. Michael Smith  ...!{hplabs,ihnp4,amd,nsc}!amdahl!ems

Joined them, perhaps -- but they have not become Gods, any more than
anyone who dies.

Yes, the Challenger dead should be honored, even memorialized.  But let's
not get carried away.  An earth-bound memorial, or a plaque on the space
station, yes.  Not moons.   (Besides, I doubt if the Challenger crew
*themselves* would have appreciated such overly-high honor.  As Chuck
Yeager would say (I find his matter-of-fact attitude a bit unfathomable,
but refreshing), they were just doing their jobs.)  

In our heightened emotional state I fear we are beginning to over-react.
It's beginning to be time to step back a moment and THINK.

Barb