Re: A Shuttle Exploding Over My Head

Hey, Kendall,

"In a twist of nomenclature that would seem implausible in fiction, a 
craft carrying Col. Ilan Ramon of the Israeli Air Force apparently broke 
up over an East Texas town called Palestine." - NYTimes.com

It seems, somehow, more of a sad accident than the Challenger crash, 
which felt like a tragedy, a pit-of-the-stomach horror, especially as a 
kid. But in the time since, there has been the lingering spectre of 
Challenger, there have been too many major airplane crashes with 
hundreds dead, and then September 11, and those are just the American 
horrors.

The dimensions of American "tragedy" have changed for me. Watching the 
television, I feel terrible to see such failure and the loss of life, 
but I'm going to go about my day instead of stick to the TV; there's 
nothing I can do and there will be no explanation for what went wrong 
for months, or a year.

Paul