2003-02-03 - 10:29 p.m.

High Flight by John Gillespie Magee, Jr.

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth

And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;

Sunward I've climbed and joined the tumbling mirth of sun-split clouds,--and done a hundred things

You have not dreamed of wheeled and soared and swung

High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,

I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung

My eager craft through footless falls of air...

Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue

I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace

Where never lark, nor eer eagle flew--

And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod

The high, untrespassed sanctity of space,

Put out my hand and touched the face of God.

I will just assume that as Columbia fragmented into a star shape in the sky, seven brave men and women held their arms out and closed their eyes and believed that something would pick them up and keep them safe, and I will just assume that before the earth came up to meet them, something else came up to meet them too.

Sars- Tomato nation.com

I am sorry I can't find the Bloom County strip with that poem in it online. If there weren;'t copyright laws I'd scan it for you all. Alas, it is not to be.

This may sound incongruous but ...

it was a risk.

A known risk.

The job- the calling- is a perilous guard.

Just like being a soldier, or a coal miner, or a sailer, or ajockey.

Which doesn't change the fact.

It doesn't lessen the loss. I know some people may think I am saying that because they who perished knew the risks that somehow it was "ok".

Negative. The very fact that they would still hold their dream- that they would want to be in such a line of work. WIth glory go risks beyond the scope of ordoinary men.

Or women.

See also: "The Long Watch" by Heinlien

""The Long Watch" was published in the December 1949 American Legion Magazine, and is long on glory.� ...{T}here is a grab for power by military officers stationed on the Moon, forestalled by another young officer who disobeys orders, dismantles all the bombs and destroys them, saving the Earth and getting himself killed by radioactivity in the process.�"

Oh it just sucks is all.

Every way from wednesday. It all sucks.

Heros don't mean anything anymore until they die.

Maybe we should create a new classification: Future heros- potentials,. whatever. And give them a tax break, a free sandwich, a pat on the back. For taking all the jobs that suck. The goofd and the bad and they do it.

While we;'re at it- lets give the reward to all the men and women who do the best they can on no means,.

I suppose both come down to sacrifice. Do you?

Its not about religions or beliefs as much as integrity. Maybe about beliefs - about giving up on yourself but putting stock in something you believe to be more worthy.

Sacrifice.

We could use a little more of it, everyday. a little more honor, a little more glory, a few living hero's.

Sacrifice.

What did the crew of the columbia sacrifice themselves for? Who? Just pretend it was you.

Pretend the future of the human race lies offworld, in the expansion of the terran race off the earth.

Pretend that everday people sacrifice for each other.

Makes humanity look damn noble doesn't it?

Try and live up to that, in your own twisted way.

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