The news today, terribly sad, that the Titan submersible broke up during descent and the five souls on board are all lost.
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We immediately thought of a prior tragedy that touched the nation, and the words of President Ronald Wilson Reagan. The speech, given from the oval office the afternoon after the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger, is now considered one of the top political speeches of the 20th century. His closing words are worth remembering in this time of sorrow:
There's a coincidence today. On this day 390 years ago, the great explorer Sir Francis Drake died aboard ship off the coast of Panama. In his lifetime the great frontiers were the oceans, and an historian later said, "He lived by the sea, died on it, and was buried in it." Well, today we can say of the Challenger crew: Their dedication was, like Drake's, complete.
The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and "slipped the surly bonds of earth" to "touch the face of God."
Also, in the future, a good rule of thumb is to avoid complex machinery that your life depends on that is controlled by this:
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| This does not inspire confidence |
3 comments:
Such a great and somber post but couldn’t help but laugh at the photo. But so true though.
500 people died on a boat that sank off the coast of Greece last week.
It is disturbing to have subsequently heard that our tax money will be used to pay for the Marine Board that will study the Titan loss. This was a private enterprise, and the people who sadly died in this wholly predictable tragedy, paid $250K EACH to take that risk, complete with detailed pre-trip waivers. No US government study of this accident is likely to enhance our study of the ocean or add to our scientific knowledge.
And to use the Challenger speech here is to cheapen the Challenger tragedy (and see also 2.56's cogent comment) and undeservedly enhance the importance of the Titan event.
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