February 1, 2003
NOT ONE OF THEM IS MISSING:
Remarks by the President on the Loss of Space Shuttle Columbia (George W. Bush, 2/01/03 2:04 P.M. EST, The Cabinet Room)My fellow Americans, this day has brought terrible news and great sadness to our country. At 9:00 a.m. this morning, Mission Control in Houston lost contact with our Space Shuttle Columbia. A short time later, debris was seen falling from the skies above Texas. The Columbia is lost; there are no survivors.On board was a crew of seven: Colonel Rick Husband; Lt. Colonel Michael Anderson; Commander Laurel Clark; Captain David Brown; Commander William McCool; Dr. Kalpana Chawla; and Ilan Ramon, a Colonel in the Israeli Air Force. These men and women assumed great risk in the service to all humanity.
In an age when space flight has come to seem almost routine, it is easy to overlook the dangers of travel by rocket, and the difficulties of navigating the fierce outer atmosphere of the Earth. These astronauts knew the dangers, and they faced them willingly, knowing they had a high and noble purpose in life. Because of their courage and daring and idealism, we will miss them all the more.
All Americans today are thinking, as well, of the families of these men and women who have been given this sudden shock and grief. You're not alone. Our entire nation grieves with you. And those you loved will always have the respect and gratitude of this country.
The cause in which they died will continue. Mankind is led into the darkness beyond our world by the inspiration of discovery and the longing to understand. Our journey into space will go on.
In the skies today we saw destruction and tragedy. Yet farther than we can see there is comfort and hope. In the words of the prophet Isaiah, "Lift your eyes and look to the heavens. Who created all these? He who brings out the starry hosts one by one and calls them each by name. Because of His great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing."
The same Creator who names the stars also knows the names of the seven souls we mourn today. The crew of the shuttle Columbia did not return safely to Earth; yet we can pray that all are safely home.
May God bless the grieving families, and may God continue to bless America.
That should make the ACLU and People for the American Way scream.
MORE:
Bush not shy about Christ's role in his life: President Bush has many church-state separatists in a twist over the overtly religious language he peppered throughout his State of the Union address this week (Cathleen Falsani, 1/31/03, Chicago Sun-Times)
Next Stop: War: The State of the Union highlighted President Bush's religious convictions--and made war in Iraq a near certainty. (Terry Eastland, 01/29/2003, Weekly Standard)
Amen
Posted by: Gideon at February 1, 2003 5:39 PMMaybe he should have prayed harder. Or to a
different god.
It bespeaks a rather contemptuous attitude
toward the deity to drag him in after you've
screwed up this big.
Harry:
You may be right: this may be an entirely material world. Or people of faith may be right: the human soul may be a reality and there may be at least a chance that it endures. Neither of us has any more idea who's right than anyone who's ever lived. So who's "right" is a pointless feud.
But we can know this: if you're right then nothing means anything. The deaths today, attacks of 9-11, the rape of a child, the murder of one woman down the block of a million in Iraq of seven million in Nazi Germany of thirty million in the Soviet Union of 60 million in Communist China--none of this amounts to a hill of beans. It's mere rearrangement of matter.
If, on the other hand, the soul is a real thing, and we matter beyond our temporary corporeal forms, then who we are and what we do and how we live and how die matters greatly. If truth and beauty and goodness and all those other concepts exist even in our absence, then we have something worth aspiring to.
All that men can do is choose which of those visions of the world around them they'll live by. If they choose the latter there's little likelihood they'll create a world where lives matter and where we strive for truth and beauty and goodness. But if they choose the former there's none.
I choose hope, rather than despair.
Of course, Bush's speech brought back memories of Reagan's after the Challenger disaster. Although W couldn't hope to measure up to what was perhaps Reagan's (and Noonan's) finest speech...and his delivery wasn't as sure as Reagan's...he did a fin job. An the words of Isaiah were apt. I'm sure the Israeli's appreciated it, as well.
Posted by: Foos at February 2, 2003 9:54 PM