work yet to be done

[threeplusfire]

Another teacher goes into space.

That means a lot to me, for reasons that don't really translate well. At least not yet. But I have never forgotten watching that shuttle go up, and explode into sparkling fragments and smoke. How we were sent home early from school, and the horrified sound of my teacher's voice behind me, saying "Oh God." All those years, all those sci-fi novels and all those dreams of the universe beyond our atmosphere.

Comments

[doctorno.livejournal.com]

There are four places I remember in that "President Kennedy was shot" sort of way:

1. The fire at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas. The worst hotel fire in Las Vegas history, it resulted in a complete reworking of our fire code, making it a model for fire codes across the US. I was walking out of the bandroom at Hyde Park Junior High School when I saw what appeared to be a giant mushroom cloud in the sky. "Oh, god. We've been nuked!" was all I could think.

2. The day Kurt Cobain was found dead, we were in Boulder, Colorado. My girl was under a tattooist's needle when a Rastafarian busted through the front door screaming, "Kurt Cobain is dead! Kurt Cobain killed himself!" The tattooist calmly lifted the needle, said "Bummer," and went back to work.

3. The day the Challenger exploded. I was walking from one PoliSci class to another at UNLV when students started rushing to the Student Union. I followed, arriving in the lounge to see hundreds of faculty, staff, and students crowded around a big screen set watching as the Challenger exploded into two careening vapor trails and rained parts of itself--and its crew--to the crowd below.

4. The day the World Trade Center was destroyed, I awoke in a hotel room in Disneyland, of all places, to the sound of Howard Stern saying that, for the first time in history, all air traffic had been grounded. I said, "What the fuck?!" and turned on the television set just in time to see the first tower collapse.

Sigh.

the day when

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

1. When was this? It probably shows how young I am, that I have not heard of it before.

2. Wow. That must have been odd. I remember walking home, and seeing a live shot of Cobain on the local news, and my phone ringing off the hook with people calling. I stayed up all night watching Kurt Loder.

3. Man. I was in kindergarten. They sent us all home early, and the afternoon kids didn't have to come to school at all.

4. I didn't have classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so I was sleeping late. I woke up because the phone kept ringing, and one of my roommates' mothers was calling over and over. She worked for an airline and was hysterical with fear. I'll never forget watching with the sound turned all the way up, wrapped in my bedspread. Later on I was driving in my car, and all the radio stations were playing the presidential address, and I just could not stop shaking.

Re: the day when

[radiumhead.livejournal.com]

I work in an office at a bike messenger company.I remembered we had to stay open on 9/11,not because there was any work,but relatives of the messsengers were calling to see if any of them were going into the wtc that morning (which messengers in nyc had to do CONSTANTLY.)None of them were hurt.

Re: the day when

[sykii.livejournal.com]

I'll never forget that Kurt Loder cried.

Re: the day when

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

I know. That was the saddest damn thing in the world that night. I remember sitting with my girlfriend, who had tears running down her face, rocking her and watching MTV. I remember him looking straight into the camera and saying "Don't do it."

[radiumhead.livejournal.com]

Well,shit happens.Things blow up.Before we get to the point where "Star Trek" happens,a lot more people are probably going to have to die.Or we could just stay home.
Myself,personally,you couldn't pay me enough to go into space.

Re:

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

It's strange, the things you remember.
Space terrifies me, but I would love to go.

Er, is that a soapbox over there? Can I borrow it for a tic?

[neflhim.livejournal.com]

And it's about time. We should have done this as the first flight up after the Challenger. We need to show that space is safe, and begin using it, not fearing it.

Re: Er, is that a soapbox over there? Can I borrow it for a tic?

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I mean look at all the stuff NASA accomplished in the golden days. And they get their budget cut, and no one seems to realize the potential of space and how important that is for us.

Give me Mars!

[sykii.livejournal.com]

Gods. We were watching it live, in my first grade class. I will never forget it, no matter what should happen in my lifetime.

Re:

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

I still cringe when I see the footage. It gives me chills.

[cyniccat.livejournal.com]

What I never understood is how everyone felt really bad for the teacher who died in the Challenger explosion.

Why are we shooting teachers into space?? Aren't the other Astronauts smart enough already?

Why don't they give a fuck about the other 6 or so sorry bastards who blew up??

Re:

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

I think it was because the whole idea of the educators in space program was a really hopeful, idealistic thing. This thought of sending 'real' people up there, who were going to come back down and share their experiences was neat.

And yeah, it is kinda sad how she overshadows the others.

[doctorno.livejournal.com]

What I never understood is how everyone felt really bad for the teacher who died in the Challenger explosion.

Because she was a civilian, someone who really hadn't "signed up" for the whole "die for your country" sort of thing, just an average citizen in for an educational ridealong. Of course death is a possibility; it always is, in any situation (Clarence Piggot, a teacher at Valley High School in Las Vegas, was shot dead by a student when I was a student at Valley's sister school across the city).

Why are we shooting teachers into space?? Aren't the other Astronauts smart enough already?

We send civialins into space as a symbolic bridge between the known and the unknown, as a way of saying, "Eventually, this will be all of us."

Why don't they give a fuck about the other 6 or so sorry bastards who blew up??

We do. It was a horrible thing. But they did not die in vain; they knew what they were getting into and had accepted the full measure of those risks from the outset of their careers. The teacher, on the other hand, was a "victim" of odds.

[todfox.livejournal.com]

I remember where I was when I heard about the challenger disaster -- I didn't hear till I got home from school and my Dad tried to keep me from watching the news.

I also remember watching things go to shit in Tiannamen Square on CNN. I had been eagerly following the protests and that night I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning as the photos rolled in.

I consider watching these events on TV to be formative experiences in my youth. (sorry this posted twice with some random crap from my paste buffer in it the first time)

Re:

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

Heh, it's okay. Sometimes the net is cranky.

It's fascinating, all these things we saw on television growing up. How the world changed right under our feet.

Somewhere I have the newspaper front page the day after Tiannamen, with that epic image of the man and the tank. I remember my mother showing it to me in the morning, and how I cried on the way to school.