From: Paul H. Anderson (pha@pdq.com)
Date: Sat Mar 01 2003 - 07:54:21 PST
On Fri, 28 Feb 2003, Paul A. Thomas wrote:
> > Maybe you are right Paul, but I have enough nightmares left over from Nam.
> > I personally don't need any more.
> > Bruce
>
>
> So in part I applied this to Columbia's crew. But the devils advocate that
> lives in my head said ' why should people worry about how they look on TV
> when they are dying? ' Finally, the same reasoning I gave you
> applies: people have to have heros. *I* certainly do. If a video tape
> showed them acting like normal people when they died then I lose nothing...
> they were in fact normal people and I live with that. But on the REALLY
> RARE occasion when they person acts knowing their example will/may be
> burnished into the mind of everyone who sees it and puts normal human
> reactions aside to try to do whatever they can to achieve their goal... I
> live for that.
We all need heros. For the most part, we all have the need to know and
believe that the human race is worth continuing.
But the Columbia crew aren't going to be any more a bunch of heros in my
mind simply because they died. They are heros because they tried. Before
dying, they made a career of precision, intense training, and making
choices that put them on a .5 megaton roman candle.
No, we don't need a videotape to prove that they are heros.
Heros are among us now - on this list, among our neighbors, our families,
and ourselves. We become heros by the choices we make, not by how we die.
Let me tell you about a hero of mine. He was my high school history
teacher in 1979. He served in WWII - northern Africa and Italy. He was
just a grunt foot soldier - saw a lot of nasty stuff, probably did a lot
of nasty stuff, too. Fast forward 35 years to history class - too long to
describe the nuances of what he did, but he thought he caught me making a
real dumb mistake on homework, and was crowing about it a bit (didn't say
who to the class - probably others made the same mistake), then after
class, I showed him my homework again, that he was wrong. He paused a
moment, then said "ok - I see that you're right". How easy it would have
been for him to tell me "too bad, punk." For some reason, that moment
made me realize the incredible value of honesty, and being able to admit
when you're wrong. It has stuck with me for 25 years.
Now, it was a little thing, but like other heros, he made a choice, and it
wasn't the one that made it easier for him, but it was the right choice -
and it had a profound impact on me.
I don't need video tape of George Prinzing now in his old age or death to
know that he was a hero then. And I know that he became a hero because of
that choice he made, and like many others have and can, he made the choice
that is right, not the choice that is easy.
As to the Columbia crew, and their final moments - I hope that enough
evidence is collected to learn from the disaster and take concrete steps
to prevent or limit the likelihood of it happening again. But if they
have videotape of the final moments, speaking for myself, I don't want to
know, I don't want to see it.
Paul
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