🚀 go-pugleaf

nickh@CS.CMU.EDU (Nick Haines) writes:

>Oh, give me a break. Seven trained people, flying a brand-new,
>more-or-less untested vehicle? They knew the risks. How is this even
>comparable to massive tragedies like the famines in the Horn of
>Africa, or the Azerbaijan earthquake, or even to the Lockerbie
>bombing? To any airliner crash? There are even highway pileups which
>kill more.

>Sure, it's a tragedy. But don't go blowing it out of proportion.

>Nick Haines nickh@cmu.edu

There are many tragedies which occur every day in the world, but if I felt as
deeply about each of them as I do about Challenger, I wouldn't be sane for 
very long.  You can't measure a tragedy in terms of the sheer magnitude of 
catastrophe.  It is subjective, measured by how it affects you.  You can't
allow yourself to weep for everyone who suffers everywhere in the world, so
you weep for those who you know, or can relate to.  I saw the Challenger 7 as
not just another seven marks on the death board like you did, but as heroes
who died expanding the frontiers of human knowledge.  They died for humanity.

Have you no hopes? No dreams?  I did, until Challenger ripped them out from
under me.
				Sean

P.S. I'm sorry if that sounded like a flame...I wrote what I thought and don't
like getting sarcastic responses like that one.