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From: berry@tolerant.UUCP (David Berry)
Newsgroups: net.columbia
Subject: Re: Printed tribute- quality writing
Message-ID: <280@tolerant.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 12-Feb-86 21:04:11 EST
Article-I.D.: tolerant.280
Posted: Wed Feb 12 21:04:11 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 15-Feb-86 02:32:27 EST
References: <869@hou2d.UUCP>
Organization: Tolerant Systems, Inc.  San Jose, CA
Lines: 99

> With criticism being leveled at television coverage, NASA, et al,
> I find it quite striking that the print media writers
> have waxed so well. Below is an example.
>  
> Reprinted here without permission-
> An article by Bill Earls, freelance Connecticut writer
> Special to the Asbury Park Press, February 10, 1986
> 
>  
> In the sadness of Challenger's fiery end it's important to
> remember that it's not really the astronauts we're crying for.
>  
> It's ourselves.
>  
> You don't cry for people who knew the risks, and said, "The risk is worth it."
>  
> For people who died doing what they wanted to.
>  
> Most of us die a little at a time.
>  
> Watching interviews with McAuliffe, McNair, Resink and all the others, looking
> at their credentials- The Ph.Ds, flight hours, the honors, the incredible
> competence- it was impossible not to admire them.
>  
> Impossible not to identify with them. How much they were like us.
>  
> We're the same age. Had the same chances, went to the same schools. We
> were good athletes, took piano, wanted to fly.
>  
> We thrilled to John Glenn just as Scobee and Smith did. Were just as touched
> by JFK's "Ask not..." speech, just as hurt by King's death...
>  
> And we though we could make a difference, too. Do something under the
> blue ribbon with the white stars, our name on the Pulitzer rolls, our number
> in Canton or Cooperstown, our book on the best seller list.
>  
> Now we're copy editors, remembering the novel we haven't touched in years;
> a Chevy mechanic, wishing we'd taken that ROTC scholarship; a corporate
> lawyer, bored with brief after brief, looking with pain at the college crew
> photo; a teacher or mail carrier or factory worker keeping model airplanes
> in a drawer next to old yearbooks and a faded letter sweater.
>  
> We get trapped by pension plans and Blue Cross, mortgages and timidity. We
> don't exercise as much, walk where we use to run. We weigh ideas, evaluate
> things, wonder what people will think, are careful not to offend, think
> of the long term, of security...
>  
> And the dreams go after a while.
>  
> The hope spills out like the lining from ripped teddy bears... and after
> a while we even forget we had the dreams. We learn to mistrust dedication,
> forget that we once worked though the night, studied until our eyes were
> read, believed that we were special.
>  
> Instead we find "Dallas," the Super Bowl and a beer or two after work
> with the other people just like us. Friday flows into the weekend. January
> fades into July and 1968 becomes 1986 and we get old and the dreams get
> farther away...
>  
> And the Glenns and the Kings and the Kennedys give way to a new pantheon
> of heroes- Madonnas and Rambos and McEnroes and a gaggle of tawdry imitators.
>  
> And then- thank God- something like the crew of Challenger reminds
> us of what we can be, what the species is capable of,
> what "a piece of work is man..."
>  
> And they were just like us.
>  
> Almost.
>  
> We wish our own lives could be that dedicated, our own end that clean and
> swift. And if most of us had a choice, we'd take and ending that dramatic-
> if we, too, had a life that purposeful.
>  
> In a fair world, the Challenger Seven would have returned, shared with us what
> they've seen and what they've done, accepted the plaudits and honors they had 
> coming.
>  
> But we know the world isn't fair.
>  
> Never was.
>  
> And in that unfairness we're reminded again of what a real heroism is;
> working to our limits, knowing the risk, saying the risk is worth it.
>  
> And, perhaps more important, we're reminded what each of us is capable of.
>  
> The tears are for us.
>  

	Hear, Hear!
-- 

	David W. Berry
	dwb@well.UUCP
	Delphi: dwb
	{ucbvax,pyramid,idsvax,bene,oliveb}!tolerant!berry

	I'm only here for the beer.