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Saturday, February 1 7 stars over Texas
This morning I went out to the corner café for my usual 1:00 in the afternoon breakfast and walked into a crowd of shocked faces staring at a soundless television on which a streak of smoked was plummeting to earth. I felt a chill cover my skin. The caption beneath the streak of smoke breaking into smaller streaks read, “Israeli astronaut.” I felt a wad of anxiety well up in my throat. "Had they shot bombs at another passenger jet and this time hit their mark? Then I thought what do astronauts have to do with passenger jets? A deja vus of how I felt the morning of “911” came over me. It was almost overwhelming. I assumed this was a terrorist act of some kind. “What happened?’ I asked the waitress. “Space shuttle disintegrated…7 astronauts dead.." “Shit.” "Was the first Israeli in space," she said. "Oh man." "They say it's not terrorism," she added reading my thoughts. In that moment I felt un-sure of what was more horrific, the death of 7 people or the timing of the death of 7 astronauts on an American space shuttle with the first Israeli astronaut to go to space. Bad timing for America...we've had so much sadness. Bad timing for Israel... they needed something good to happen in a sea of bad. Terrible deja vus for us all. A deja vus for "911" a deja vus for the last horrible space shuttle disaster. I am thinking of 1986 and The Challenger and the sadness and helplessness of witnissing the deaths of those astronauts. Today's horror comes with a mixed bag of emotions. We witnessed on our televisions or perhaps from the sky, the death of 7 innocents, we felt sadness in our hearts, but un-like 1986, this time, we are also filled with fear. We are also asking questions. Was this an accident? Is there terror? At this point it seems the answer is no. At this point the answer is, there is no answer, only death and sadness and loss. My heart goes out to the familys of these 7 heroes who dedicated their lives to the pursuit of science.
You will not be forgotten.
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