shame on us.

i read last night, several people said it, that most americans didnt care about the shuttle. it bothered me but i wasnt shure about truth to the statement so i didnt say anything.

sadly its all to true.

there was a memorial service at my school( University of Texas) tonight and only about 30 people showed up. it really bothered me to see how little people care. it says so much about this generation and the attitude of American.
how sad.

just thought i'd reluctantly validate what others here have already said

i think its sad and all but i dont see myself going to a memorial thing.
but again, i think different about this kinda stuff then alot of people.
/me thinks back to what i stirred up at 9/11

but being a teen, i would say most teenagers look at it from a different prespective, thousands and thousands of americans people die each day.
no one gives a rats ass about them.
Why are teenagers and such gonna give a hoot about the pople in the shuttle, is there a difference?
and when we go and bomb other countries and kill people from there we celebrate.

<small>[ February 03, 2003, 10:37 PM: Message edited by: mookystains ]</small>

mookystains:

Why are teenagers and such gonna give a hoot about the pople in the shuttle, is there a difference?
and when we go and bomb other countries and kill people from there we celebrate.

Click to expand...

yeah there's a big difference.
those men and women were brave. i consider them heroes. you should too. they're pioneers.

a well said question. but stangely, i care when anyone dies. and i consider that regularly.

but if your take is why should teens care about this, then why should they care if anyone dies? its not just teens anyhow, its from ages 17-29, grad-school included.

teens should care because these were people who lost their lives helping develope the technology of America and expanding(not to be cheesey) our horizons. the list of things that have come from NASA use is lenghy, and most people dont know many of those items they use all the time originated from the space program.

why shouldn't teens care?

I hate to sound like a callous jerk, but what the hell. I'm upset at how much media attention this got when there are far more important things to be discussed, such as the situations in Iraq, Korea, and the atrocities in Zimbabwe.

I appreciate the lives that were lost, but in Australia on the same day (or was it the day before?) a train derailed and rolled off it's tracks on to a highway, killing 9 people and wounding 45, far more than were on board the shuttle, but it didn't even get a blip on the news.

<small>[ February 03, 2003, 10:47 PM: Message edited by: Talen ]</small>

i know that things are missed in the news, but this thread was to focus simply on the fact that few really care about the shuttle.

it reflects very poorly on the American mentality, and shows how deteteriorated the honor of many Americans has become. we take to much for nothin and act like we have it bad. it may just be that i'm at a super liberal school and this is just the mentality of is students, but i doubt it.

mother theresa died without a hoot or holla. all she got was a brief mention while Princess Di got plenty of publicity when she died (they died around the same time)

I wouldn't go so far as to say a majority of Americans don't care about the space shuttle tragedy. I am sure there are those who don't care, but i certainly am not one of them. The loss of the Columbia and its crew is simply so terrible and it moves me to tears. I think the loss of the space shuttle and her crew is such a tragedy because thier mission (and all other missions to space) is one of peace, discovery, exploration, and most of all hope. These missions aren't politically motivated with some kind of hidden agenda. They are simple and pure and are done only to benefit all of mankind. The international space station is a perfect example of this - Nations coming together to work on a common goal. Perhaps if peace can be achieved in space then one day it can be achieved on our own planet. I for one look towards the stars with hope, and i will never forget the brave men and women who have died in the name of peace, exploration, and discovery.

First of all, the amount of press and time and overall feelings about this incident are incredible. It's all that's on the news all of a sudden, and just the fact that there are memorials for it everywhere. The main section of my newspaper today was nothing but news about the shuttle incident.

I care, but just because I care about it when anyone good dies. If I get to thinking about it, I'll care. I just hate death and dying. I put myself in their shoes and it hurts to imagine it...

I like to deal with this aspect of life in a personal way, and I don't like to go to the memorial things because of that. I don't think that going to those makes you a better person. You should go if that's what you feel you want to do. It shouldn't be something to go to just because it was a tragedy and that's what people do when tragedies happen.

Don't hate on people and say that no ones cares. Besides the fact that they do, I don't think those people would want anyone to be mad and arguing over this kind of thing.

yeah well what about all the police officers that put them selves in danger every day { my chosen profession } ? some of which get killed.

It sucks that the shuttle disentigrated but thats life , do I think they are heros ? no I dont , I think they are people that were doing the thing they loved to do and shit happened, they should not be looked upon as marters or anything. Death is a fact of life.

This kind of thing happens to people everyday { premature death } , you just never hear about it so it dosent effect you.

I dont feel any empathy for them in any way at all , these things happen and when its your time and mine its time, I hope it comes while Im doing something I love to do as well.
They knew the risks and took them , just as I know the risks that come with working in law enforcement and take them everyday.

read last night, several people said it, that most americans didnt care about the shuttle. it bothered me but i wasnt shure about truth to the statement so i didnt say anything.
sadly its all to true.
there was a memorial service at my school( University of Texas) tonight and only about 30 people showed up. it really bothered me to see how little people care. it says so much about this generation and the attitude of American.
how sad.
just thought i'd reluctantly validate what others here have already said

Click to expand...

I feel you,man.At the same time,living in Los Angeles for so long made my warm heart turned cold.Most of my friends in high school are either dead or doing time up north.I've been to at least 4 funerals within 5 years,non by natural cause.Another one of my friends just got broke off with 70 years without the possibillity of parole.How the hell am I suppose to feel about 7 astronauts I never knew?I mean,don't get me wrong,it is fucked up what happend to them and I feel bad for their family,but you got to keep in mind,those people got paid big bucks to do what they do.They are all aware of the possible danger of explosion or malfunction.They know good and well they might not even come back.I guess this is the reason why I don't really feel hurt about it.I guess you can say I'm pretty much desensitized.Oh well,that's my two cents.If you don't like it,too bad.

candycab:
yeah well what about all the police officers that put them selves in danger every day { my chosen profession } ? some of which get killed.

It sucks that the shuttle disentigrated but thats life , do I think they are heros ? no I dont , I think they are people that were doing the thing they loved to do and shit happened, they should not be looked upon as marters or anything. Death is a fact of life.

This kind of thing happens to people everyday { premature death } , you just never hear about it so it dosent effect you.

I dont feel any empathy for them in any way at all , these things happen and when its your time and mine its time, I hope it comes while Im doing something I love to do as well.
They knew the risks and took them , just as I know the risks that come with working in law enforcement and take them everyday.

Click to expand...

What is your definition of a hero then? I'm just curious.

It is true that dying is a fact of life and i agree that if i have to die prematurely i hope its doing something i love. Its true they knew the risks and they died doing what they loved, however, that doesn't make it any less sad or tragic. I always find it terrible when people die in proffessions that exist only to help others - i feel astronauts is one such profession. Thats just some more of my 2 cents.

I guess a hero to me would be someone along the lines of a person who directly puts himself in harms way to help another ?

Such as the firefighters of NY City or soldiers who go to war so all of us can be free as a society.

I guess in a way the astronauts that died saturday could be considered heros ? but I guess it comes down to ones idea of what makes someone a hero. Im my eyes they were just another bunch of governmet funded scientists that gambled and lost, but unfortunitly for them and their families it was their lives they were gambling with.

The really bad part of this is the time and money that has now been lost once again in the space program , but at least their experiments came back in one piece , so I guess its not a total wright off.

edited for crappy grammer

Where did the spell check go anyway ?

<small>[ February 04, 2003, 02:24 AM: Message edited by: candycab ]</small>

You might want to look into what those experiments were. This mission was one of the most ambitious scientifically in a while. One of the experiments would have helped prostate cancer supposedly. Anyone who risks their life for causes like that is A+ in my book.

I'm not sure what all the expierments were, but I know there was some great stuff being done....

Yeah 80+ plus expirements. Unfortunately i believe a few of them were lost as they needed to be analyzed upon reaching earth.

To me death is a part of life, and not the end.

These astronauts died doing something they loved. For that I feel that they're in a better place.

Sad? Yes. Worth worrying about? No.

I'm just gonna enjoy my Challenger jokes being funny again.

people die, accidents happen. get over it.

so what if some folk don't want to go to a memorial service? people should be able to make their own decisions without being judged.

"why do we pity the dead? are you scared by the logic that swells up in your head? go look at the living then go ask yourself why, oh why do we pity the dead?" - Bad Religion

<small>[ February 04, 2003, 04:38 AM: Message edited by: Plisken ]</small>

Life & death, life & death... You know, I must say I'm surprised to find a conversation of this degree on a reto gaming website, kudos to all who wish to enlighten themselves by this. Life & death, life or death. I seem to remember someone once telling me "to live is to die, and to die is to really live." I think that was my grandfather, who was making a reference to something his father told him about some of his WWII buddies. My greatgrandfather was a fighterpilot then, and from what I've been told, he and his sqaudren made a pact that if they were to go down in flames, they would do so with a smile on they're faces, aimming they're planes for whatever targets they could reach. I guess that means that my greatgrandfather wouldn't have been bothered much if he'd have been shot down, so long as he was in a his plane. I didn't learn of this story until after his death in 94, I guess I feel the same way, honestly. I'm trying to pursue a carreer as a fighter pilot for either the Air Force or the Navy, and I don't mind being shot out of the sky, but I would realy hate to die on the ground. I guess fling is just something in my families blood. So to that fact, I'd say it's ok to die so long as it's doing something you love.

You know it's funny how this topic seems to bring up touchy feeling in all of us, since in fact dying is the easy part, it's living that's the tricky part. And yet it scares us so much that we need to find heroes in reality, or we feel some important need to put our own lives in perspective as to just how good or crappy they really are, these lives of ours. The truth of the matter is that no one really ever sees death coming, those astronauts didn't get on that shuttle that mourning thinking they were going to die. The firefighters at N.Y.C. didn't rush into the Towers thinking they were going to die, in all likely hood they probably kept the thought that there was still enough time to get some more people out right up until the end. And neither they nor the astronauts did what they thinking they would be heroes, because nobody thinks of themselves as a hero, nobody real anyway. A hero is a title that is given to somebody, by a society in general, and is most often (to often for my tastes) awarded to the person after they are gone. Heroes exsist to combat death, since death represents the most primal of evils in our minds. And unfortunetly there will never be a world without heroes, since death is ever present.

I'll leave you with this to think about, some people agree that the universe as a whole, exsist in a balence. Good & Evil, Life & Death, Light & Dark, and War & Peace. Each can't exsist without the other, and in the middle of all that, lies each individuals answers to the question of his own life.

multi_co

No one should be afraid of death.
We're all infinite and part of something greater.

Imagine if you will a giant eye that has 360 degrees of perception at all times. Now take a mesh, and cover the eye tightly, so that the surface area of the eye becomes a raised grid. Each of these raised sections represents a person; an area of awareness. Persons who you seem to get along with, or who seem to "see things your way," really are doing just that. Closer to your perception of reality, you get along. Capable of seeing only 180 'degrees' of reality, we lack complete understanding of the world around us.

Astronauts are very brave indeed, strapping themselves in for a rocket ride into orbit, but I'm not impacted personally by this tradedy. You can't mourn the deaths of everyone who dies.

This is example in the power of the media. They decide which stories that we should care about. So since Fox, and CNN decide to run 24 hour coverage and biographies on the Astronauts, I'm supposed to care more about their deaths then say the killing of White Farmers in Zimbabwe, which doesn't get reported at all.

Many people, many heroes, die every day, yet the media decides which ones to tell us about. Whichever ones are important to them or whichever ones they feel will help their cause. Just think in a couple days, CNN Headline news will be back to giving more time in their hourly schedule telling us Celebrity Birthdays rather than information on the Shuttle Astronauts.

You only care about these Astronauts because CNN and FOX News gave it more attention, and little dramatic bio's on them. Personally I think they gave WAY TOO MUCH attention to the fact that there was the first Isreali in space. That really turned me off because that seemed to be the most important point, for the media anyway.

"You only care about these Astronauts because CNN and FOX News gave it more attention, and little dramatic bio's on them. Personally I think they gave WAY TOO MUCH attention to the fact that there was the first Isreali in space. That really turned me off because that seemed to be the most important point, for the media anyway."


VERY VERY GOOD POINT THANKS!!!!
That just re-inforces my argument, that Isrealis are beind SO much of the mass media in the USA, you dont see ANY decent footage on FOX. Try other news stations....There was NO REASON to dramatise HOW MUCH it was the 1st Isreali in space, i mean, just wait, if you see a film on him being released now, youll know its true when the film comes out in the style of a holocaust drama meets the days of our lives lol!!!! or dallas! lol lol

There are tons of self-centered people in the world who don't care. Get used to it man.

I think the reason the media talked about the various nationalities within the shuttle is because it shows how far we've come - and how much further we can go.

When you start letting the media dictate what you should and shouldn't care about you are nothing but a blind sheep. This also includes not caring for certain incidents soley for the reason that the media covers it and not something else you think they should cover.

candycab:
yeah well what about all the police officers that put them selves in danger every day { my chosen profession } ? some of which get killed.

It sucks that the shuttle disentigrated but thats life , do I think they are heros ? no I dont , I think they are people that were doing the thing they loved to do and shit happened, they should not be looked upon as marters or anything. Death is a fact of life.

This kind of thing happens to people everyday { premature death } , you just never hear about it so it dosent effect you.

I dont feel any empathy for them in any way at all , these things happen and when its your time and mine its time, I hope it comes while Im doing something I love to do as well.
They knew the risks and took them , just as I know the risks that come with working in law enforcement and take them everyday.

Click to expand...

I agree. I mean it's extremely unfortunate that this happened, but comeone, were they out saving the lives of their comrades or like the people in 9/11 who were running back up the towers to save the lives of people they didn't even know. They went into space, they knew therisks involved, and chose to do it anyway. They didn't die fighting for our country or saving lives. While I feel for the families and friends of those who died up there, I don't think they are heros, what did they do to deserve that title?

The media coverage, especially the all-news stations, has been like a 24-hour memorial service. Geezuz these people are so freaking glum and morbid.

Talking about body parts being found, and trying to describe what the remains might be of. Damn this country gets more sick every day.

I remember when the shuttle blew up in the 80's, and it was a different time then as far as space travel. People still gave a rat's ass about it, but they don't now. How many military personell have we lost since the September 11th war started? I'm sure more than 7, but nobody gives it the same kind of coverage because this "war" has too many politics involved. Sad really.

I do think this should be a turning point for America. I think we should get back the people on the space station, and then stop the space program for now.

Space is going to be there for a long fucking time - we have far too many problems down here on Earth to be spending blood, sweat, and tears on "socialistic utopia Star Trek pipe dreams". oh_no