Ok, I'm really quite pissed now! Twice I've done this posting & AOL has crashed it! UGH!!!!! I tried this afternoon & couldn't redo it before heading out to a Chinese New Year Celebration. At least the party was fun & took the stress of all this away. There were about 30 of us! :-) Then after I came home I started to work on it & find new links etc. So once again I will TRY!
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Do you remember what you were doing 20 years ago today (Sat!)?
I was a Junior in college. Dang, I feel old now! :-( It was an eerie day. I was sitting on a bench in the hallway of Wagner hall waiting to get into my Experimental Psych course. I was listening to classical music on my Walkman (Cassette ones in those days!). I remember thinking "If you were going to die today would you know? Would it feel any different to you?" Well, do you understand why I was majoring in Psych! HA! Of course taking all those classes makes you do that too. Well, I finished my class & headed to the Student Union to meet one of my best friends Colleen for lunch. I entered the sandwich shop & it was weird! Complete stillness! No one was moving or really talking. My friend filled me in on what happened & it was there I saw on the wide screen projection tv the explosion as the news was repeating it.
I remember Christa McAuliffe was to go up in space. As I sat in bed studying each night the news would announce the launch was scrubbed once again due to weather. No figured "no big deal". The shuttles were pretty much routine then. Unfortunately, many others at NASA and Morton Thiokol also felt this way. It is odd how the textbooks I use for my students now have the Challenger as an example of "Groupthink". Groupthink is where one has uncritical approval & conforms to what others think. They figure others no what is wrong & they haven't said anything so why should I. Actually, tonight I watched on the National Geographic Channel "Challenger: The Untold Story". They had the widow of Dick Scobee & one of the top engineers from Morton Thiokol who did try to stop the launch but others would not listen to him. Check out his website.
When Columbia exploded I was worried the same thing happened & they did not learn from their mistakes with Challenger. I watched a great deal of Discovery's coverage. I was happy to hear Commander Eileen Collins state NASA had changed & that if anyone had any concerns they were to speak up. The last pix show a poster they had at NASA.
Check out the following:
Challenger Learning Centers
CNN: Remembering Christa
NY Times Article
NY Times Article: Colonel Mullane NASA Critic
I love his quote: Testosterone is Neurotoxic" :-)
So where were you 20 years ago today?
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6 comments:
I really dont remember this happening, I was 21 at that time.
It doesnt seem like 20 years ago already . Very sad.
Ellen
i was living in florida and could see the blastoffs vapor trails from where i lived.. I saw it happen.. a view i will never forget.
I wasn't around for the assasinations of JFK or MLK or the development of the Apollo missions.
For me, national tragedies are Challenger, Columbia, 9/11, Andrew, and Katrina.
Great post.
Chris
Most recent entry was 1/28/06
http://inanethoughtsandinsaneramblings.blogspot.com/
I was 18, going on nineteen, and I was a layout artist for a local newspaper. We were at work when he heard the report and turned on the TV.
Lori
yeah Deborah..I remember how much grief we all ahd and how upset we were that she was gone along wiht the others
I'll never forget that day, ever! I was in school, we stopped and prayed and didn't continue with classes until the next day. It was very eerie. Such a huge loss. I can't believe it's been so long when it feels like just a few years ago.
~ Jenny
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