When news of the Columbia disaster first penetrated my weekend malaise, I immediately conjured up terrorist imagery. While one may regard this as irrational fervor, nothing is farther from the truth. I was fully aware that no organization had the means necessary to penetrate NASA security or deliver a missile at such a high altitude. However, knowing that the first Israeli in space was about to make a successful landing and knowing what the world currently thinks of Israelis I think my reaction was pretty reasonable.
The news media characteristically downplayed the philosophical significance of the Israeli astronaut. His inclusion represented a clear-cut commentary on the state and people of Israeli and those who wish to destroy it. In contrast to its neighbors, Israel is a secular state that boasts individual rights, democracy, capitalism and progress. The next time a suicide bomber unleashes a wave of terror on a Jerusalem café, one should denote his motivations not merely as searing anti-Semitism but also as the manifestation of a backward society’s rhetorical question ‘Who is man to fly?’
Thankfully, an Iraqi’s remarks (‘We are happy that it broke up’) served as the Arab world’s only role in the ordeal; the most likely cause of the accident was heat tile damage. While many accuse NASA of sacrificing vital safety concerns, it is entirely inappropriate for Washington to go without blame for shortchanging NASA financially and morally. The State of the Union was a disturbing symbol of the government’s apathy toward the program. It wasn’t mentioned, but the conservative Texan spoke energetically about governmental ‘investment’ in hydrogen-powered vehicles.
However, Bush isn’t the first to put NASA on the back burner. When the desire to reduce the deficit ballooned in the early 1990s, Congress sharply curtailed its funding. In fact, NASA receives approximately the same amount as it did then $15 billion. It is inexcusable that Washington doesn’t have the decency to allow NASA funding to compensate for inflation, let alone make further investments in it (i.e. space ‘elevators’ and nuclear propulsion). When Bush announced on Sunday that NASA would be receiving a $500 million increase, I was by no means excited, but relieved. This was before I learned that the increase was itemized pre-disaster and nothing further would follow.
What this country needs is real leadership a president whose interest in space is grounded in a philosophical drive that glorifies man’s ability to touch the stars. Reagan was the last commander-in-chief whose boyhood dreams of the great unknown never strayed. His gut-wrenching Challenger speech was not merely the clever work of speechwriters but the crystallization of everything he’d ever believed about man’s purpose. For a man who’s supposedly Reagan’s heir-apparent, Bush has a lot more to learn. He needs to take the tears of today and turn them into the fuel for tomorrow.
If the powers that be still act as if Amtrak is the superior ‘investment in our future,’ the youth will have to take the future into their own hands. In elementary school, I was bombarded by the very notion of space. We’d have to memorize space spelling words, complete space projects and, of course, watch the shuttle launches on TV. I left with the feeling that there was something up there greater than twinkling bulbs of light. But talking to today’s children, these activities have as much significance as an Apple II. If another generation leaves America’s classrooms thinking the days of space travel are past … they will be.
Forty-five years ago, America’s greatest nemesis was launching Sputnik. Today’s enemies loom even larger, made so by the fact that they’re not reaching into the heavens. Or at least not those imagined on ‘Star Trek.’ The notion that the afterlife is of greater importance than life on Earth has its stranglehold on too many people. Muslim extremists don’t only loathe America because of its foreign policy or its teenagers’ fashions but because we see the heavens not as worthy of submission but worthy of conquer.
It is only appropriate that the victims of the Columbia be memorialized and with greater emphasis than those homeless found frozen to death. But their relatives many of whom courageously spoke out on the night of their kin’s demise warn against wallowing in quagmires of pity and sacrifice. Those who believe an astronaut’s greatest virtue is his sacrifice don’t understand a single thing about being one.
Following Sept. 11th, I was overcome with the desire to jump aboard the nearest airliner. I can understand how many astronauts feel similarly and would leave tomorrow if possible. Mankind is still in the midst of ‘his long climb from the swamp to the stars,’ thanks in no small part to these true American heroes.
[ Jacob Cote, a freshman in the College of Communication, is a weekly columnist for The Daily Free Press and can be reached at [email protected]. ]