Two plumes — two Americas. And yet, for all the similarities, the reaction to the two shuttle disasters differed in ways that reflect the enormous changes in America and the world in the intervening 17 years. Pan Am 103. The World Trade Center in 1993. Waco. Oklahoma City. And, of course, Sept. 11. [MSNBC]
I was out all of this weekend and so was not able to respond to the breakup of the space shuttle Columbia over the weekend, but Michael Moran hit my reaction on the head with his article.
In 1986, I was 13 and getting ready to go to school when the Challenger exploded. For a 13-year old kid whose interest in space was slowly being eclipsed by his interest in computers (the two were probably even at that point), the tragedy was extremely personal.
The feeling I had that day was not dissimilar to what I felt on September 11, 2001, although without the same level of fear and uncertainty that the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington gave us all. And I think that what I felt was common. Challenger was a great tragedy for our country and our world.
And while the loss of Columbia is no less a tragedy, and it breaks my heart to think about the families of the astronauts, and the nation of Israel, who had one of its few positive events from the past two years snuffed out in several plumes of debris, it didn't feel the same this time. Perhaps it's the perspective that comes with being an adult, but the world seems weary from the pain of the last several years.
Everyone said after the Challenger exploded that we would remember the day the same way people had remembered John F. Kennedy's assassination. And so I have. But I wonder if I will remember the day Columbia broke apart the same way? Or will the real tragedy of February 1 fade in the shadows of the events of September 11th, 2001 and the wars which followed?
5:10:17 PM 
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