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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!bellcore!decvax!cca!ISM780!jimb
From: jimb@ISM780.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: CHALLENGER
Message-ID: <33300008@ISM780.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 29-Jan-86 12:14:00 EST
Article-I.D.: ISM780.33300008
Posted: Wed Jan 29 12:14:00 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 11-Feb-86 03:04:09 EST
Lines: 53
Nf-ID: #N:ISM780:33300008:000:2628
Nf-From: ISM780!jimb    Jan 29 12:14:00 1986



	I'm still in deep shock, numb.  I don't see how anybody who shared
the dream cannot be in deep pain.  Me?  I'm just going ahead and breaking
into tears every few hours.  But beyond that, this is going to be a hard time
for the space program, already under budget pressues as eugene and others
have mentioned.

	If you love the space program, if you want the space program to be a
memorial to the CHALLENGER and her crew and not the other way around, do
something.  Write.  Write every goddammed letters-to-the-editor column and
political person of import that you can think of.  For the pols, write
ESPECIALLY if you have no economic interest in the space program.  Idealism
baffles the pols (I've worked on both Senate and House staffs), but if
there's enough of it, they finally shake their heads and conclude that it IS
the will of the people.

	Write in your own words, from both the heart and the mind.  Xerox
letter campaigns are discounted by both newspapers and politicos.

	Following is the text of a letter that I sent to a number of places.
I've been reading net.space for months and never had anything that I thought
worth contributing.  My apologies to any who are offended by the length of
this posting or the emotional content, but damn it, this is important.

*******

	When the first lung-fish crawled out of the sea and lay gasping on
the land, many died and many returned to the sea.  When our first half-human
ancestors looked out from the forests and left the safety of the trees for
the unknown savannah, there was danger.  When ancient mariners first began to
sail their fragile ships beyond te sght of shore and into the unknown, there
were risks and losses.

	When mankind began to erect cties that offered greater comfort and
security, and when they raised the great cathedrals to celebrate the greater
glory of God, lives were lost in the quarrys and on the scaffolds.  When
scientists such as Walter Reed first began to confront the mysteries and
uncertainties of contagious diseases in the search for a cure, many succumbed
to the ailments they studied, a price for advancing the knowledge of mankind.

	In any large-scale human endeavor that has worked to the benefit of
mankind, there has been pain and sacrifice and loss.  We stand ow at one of
the pivotal points in history.  We can say "no" to the unknown mysteries of
space, turn our backs, and announce our decline as a civilization.  Or we can
look at the stars, express our grief at the loss of the CHALLENGER and its
crew, and then honor their lives by saying, "We shall continue."

********

			-- Jim Brunet

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