Recollecting the Challenger Tragedy
I served (!) my freshman year in
college at the newly-minted Liberty University, home of Jerry
Falwell. (Apparently I was determined in those days to go into debt for little return on the investment.) Early in the Spring semester I enjoyed sitting at the huge
tables just inside the big double doors of the library (often
studying for my upcoming multiple-choice tests). I liked being able to spread out my accounting workbook and
other papers. (To this day I like a large, empty horizontal surface,
but I never see any.) Out in the common
area of the DeMoss building there were clusters of TVs and plenty of
seating.
Suddenly someone burst into the double doors
saying something about an “explosion.” The library was noisier
than usual as conversations began. For some reason I was already
standing up, and many of us made our way into the common area to the
TVs. There I saw a replay of what had happened moments before.
All us young folk were pretty much in
shock, and I remember feeling slightly sick. I also recall how I
continued to think, “They might be OK.” I hoped, in some vague
way, that the Challenger Astronauts, along with Christa McAuliffe,
survived in a capsule or something. Surely they didn't just die. I
carried this idea for hours, listening for surprising news of their
rescue and condition.
A air of dread settled over us that
morning, and it continued back into the top hall of Dorm 26. Anyone who
had a TV in their room had it on (this may have been only the
Resident Assistants) and a crowd gathered around them. As I remember
it the man on the screen was Dan Rather.
Through exposure to this
event, many young people at LU learned a little more about the life
we were living. It was somewhat less than the Christian Utopian ideal we were fed there. We saw in living color that here is ultimately little control in
the drive for progress fueled by risk.
There are moments that can't be gotten
back. But today we ask for “do-overs.”
There are decisions that seem small
that result in grave consequences. But we are often too lazy to
decide at all. (If you choose not to decide you still have made a
choice.)
I am reminded of this by one of the most important aspects of the Challenger tragedy; the leadership tragedy that caused the explosion. Never forget that at least two engineers literally warned the leaders of the Shuttle Program that Challenger would blow up because it was too cold to launch and very important O rings would not be closed enough to make a critical seal. But ultimately their expert warning wasn't heeded. See and hear the story here:
What are warnings to which we turn a deaf ear? Who is speaking the truth in love, trying to prevent the catastrophe?
And
all of us, “unless we repent, shall all likewise perish.”
As many have noted through the decades, we can honor their sacrifice by listening.
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