Segacs’s World I Know

Let the finger-pointing begin . . .

WASHINGTON (AP) – Investigators looking into the space shuttle disaster will have a well-documented record of years past reflecting mounting safety concerns, tight budgets and shortages of key experts in the NASA program.

A retired U.S. navy admiral who investigated the USS Cole bombing will head the independent probe into the destruction of the space shuttle Columbia. Meanwhile, the Senate will hold hearings as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the House of Representatives science committee plan their own investigations.

Mock Israeli election results are in.

At university and college campuses across North America, students were given the opportunity to vote in a “mock” Israeli election. The goal was to foster interest among students in Israeli democracy. The results, though for all practical purposes useless, are nonetheless interesting. Likud won by a landslide, with 42% of the vote – even higher than among Israelis in the real election. The Green Leaf party, calling for the legalization of marijuana, made a strong (but perhaps predictable) showing in fifth place.

Well, at least students have their priorities in place!

I’m not in a writing mood.

I’m not sure why. I’ve been home most of the day. Certainly, there’s tons to blog about. But somehow, the words won’t come. Maybe it’s emotional or informational overload? Who’s to say?

But I’m having the same problem in French . . . even worse! Having decided my writing skills in French are laughably horrid, I enrolled in a course at l’Université de Montréal this semester in effort to improve it. So far so good, except that my measly little homework assignment consists of writing about a half-page, and I can’t seem to work up the motivation. Sad, ain’t it?

I guess some days our brains are just on “off”.

Mark Steyn writes that he expects that Americans will get through today’s tragedy, because they are tough (via LGF):

Nonetheless, this will not be as traumatisingly mesmeric as the Challenger disaster. The yellow-ribbon era died with September 11: even if their television networks haven’t quite adjusted, Americans are tougher about these things; this is a country at war and one that understands how to absorb losses and setbacks.

[ . . . ]

No doubt in the big-time mosques the A-list imams really will regard what happened as the judgment of Allah on the American-Zionist plan to seize the heavens. The rest of us will mourn the dead and urge Nasa to get on with the next flight. That’s the American way.

In a way, Steyn is right. This isn’t the end of the world, and people will mourn and move on. Israel’s space program will forge ahead. As it should, as Gerald M. Steinberg writes in the Jerusalem Post:

The exploration of space, despite the risks and tragedies, embodies the positive spirit of discovery that is essential to the human species. And when these flights resume, other Israelis will be on board, carrying on the work that Ilan Ramon began. May his memory be blessed.

As for the Americans, these thoughts were resolutely stated by President Bush in his address to the nation today:

“Mankind is led into the darkness beyond our world by the inspiration of discovery. . . . Our journey into space will go on.”

I’m reminded of a line from one of my favourite TV shows, The West Wing, by character Sam Seaborn (played by Rob Lowe. In the episode “Galileo”, he is asked by Mallory why it’s so important to try to go to Mars. He answers:

Cause it’s next. ‘Cause we came out of the cave. And we looked over the hill, and we saw fire. And we crossed the ocean, and we pioneered the West, and we took to the sky. The history of man is hung on a timeline of exploration, and this is what’s next.

Damn straight.

IAF Col. Ilan Ramon, z”l (1954-2003)

“Ramon was not just a pilot or astronaut. He was a symbol. A symbol of excellence and freedom, when Israel was undergoing one of the most difficult experiences of its life.” – Dan Gillerman, Israeli ambassador to the UN.

Forgive me for saying this, but in a strange way today feels like 9/11.

Of course, there is no comparison between the horrid loss of over 3000 lives due to a cowardly terrorist attack, and the tragic loss of 7 astronauts due to a scientific error, accident, or malfunction. I wouldn’t even begin to equate the two in terms of scope, implication, or anything else.

That being said, both days have that “twilight-zone” sort of feeling to them like they’re not quite real. Both are disasters that will go down in the history of the United States and that draw sympathy from the world. Both events are those kinds of days that, decades later, I know I will always remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when I first heard – and so will just about everyone else.

In both cases, I heard about what happened on the radio, while only semi-listening. Both on 9/11 and today, a news brief broke into the middle of a music sweep on an FM station – an unusual occurrence. And in both cases, I initially reacted with denial, thinking it was some sort of sick practical joke, and not fully processing what I was hearing. The denial then gave way to shock, and amazingly enough, in both cases I went ahead with my regular daily activities for a few hours (on 9/11 I went to class, and today I went skiing). Both on 9/11 and today, I returned home and glued myself to CNN, and only then did it begin to sink in. In both cases, the aftermath will be much more involved than the actual event.

Like I said, forgive me for feeling this way. But events like today’s tend to leave me shaken.

I’ll always remember when I heard that Yitzchak Rabin was shot.

I’ll always remember when I heard that a bomb went off at Hebrew University . . . at the Sbarro Pizzeria . . . at a Passover seder in Netanya . . . at the Dolphanarium Disco . . . in downtown Tel Aviv . . .

I will always remember when I heard that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center.

And I will probably always remember when I heard that the Columbia Space Shuttle was lost.

In memory of the astronauts of the Columbia Space Shuttle, February 1, 2003

It appears that I’m not the only one having a hard time finding the appropriate words for the Columbia disaster. At times like this, I often feel illiterate. Words never seem to be strong enough to express the appropriate emotions.

The blogosphere is reacting. LGF’s Charles Johnson admits it’s not in him to be positive, but quotes a poem by John Gillespie Magee of the RCAF in a short tribute. Glenn Reynolds has, of course, been blogging this extensively, including posting reader e-mails that he has received. Damian Penny has been following the updates on the astronauts aboard.

I think I’ll take a break and just watch the story develop for a while.

Lest this news be overshadowed by the Columbia tragedy, there was more tragic loss of life today. Six skiers were killed in an avalanche in British Columbia. More are missing.

Just awful.

Update: The death toll from this accident is now up to 7.

The Space Shuttle Columbia has been lost, and all seven astronauts aboard were killed – including Col. Ilan Ramon of the IDF, Israel’s first astronaut to fly into space.

Columbia crew: Rick Husband, Kalpana Chawla, William McCool, Ilan Ramon, Laurel Clark, Michael Anderson, and David Brown

This is a horrible tragedy that is simply beyond words. Everyone is in shock, glued to CNN or a host of sources for updates and information. Every so often, there is a news item that is so shocking that it disrupts the world and pulls us away from our daily lives. This is one of them. My heart goes out to the families of the seven astronauts aboard.

I was out skiing all day and wasn’t able to blog this earlier, but I will be following this for the next while as the news develops.

I have to admit, though, that when I first heard the news, my reaction was denial. I thought it was a practical joke. My next thought was that terrorism was involved – admit it, it flashed through your mind too. Especially considering the presence of Col. Ramon. And when I heard that reports of debris were coming from a town called Palestine, Texas, well, I had to shake my head with amazement at that particular coincidence. Officials, however, have found no evidence of terrorism at work here so far. And frankly, once I started thinking straight, I don’t see how there possibly could be.

World leaders have offered their condolences to the families of the astronauts, to the United States, and to Israel. These include the Pope, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, EU Commission President Romano Prodi, French President Jacques Chirac, and even the Palestinian Authority issued a statement. Although this is truly disgusting: In a statement about the Columbia disaster, Iraq called it “God’s punishment of America”.

President Bush addressed the American people and pledged that the space program would continue despite the tragedy.

Today will go down in history.