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Show The Salt Lake Tribune, Perhaps Test of Challenger Shows Us Were Fallible Washington Post Service In a simpler, more suof a fireball the appearance age, perstitious in the sky on the day of a great national ceremony would have been taken as a warning sign, an omen that the gods were angry. In our scientific era, the shock and grief over the destruction of the space shuttle Challenger and its crew were followed by a oneWASHINGTON week postponement of the State of the Union address and a search for the faulty piece of equipment. How Could It Happen? the usually restrained New York Times asked in a large-typfront-pag- e headline. Not How Did It as Happen?" but How Could It Happen? if the news lay in the effrontery of the occurrence. Fuel Tank Leak Feared, the second line of the headline replied. offiOn television, puzzled space-agenc- y cials kept repeating that the computer readouts from all the instruments were normal until the moment of disaster. They sounded like kids opening a Cracker Jack box and finding no prize. How Could It Hape, pen? We cannot escape the envelope of culture in which we live, so those responses seem normal to us. In this era, if a complex piece of machinery breaks down, the reflex is to seek out the malfunction, repair it and move on. al Anyone who suggested that the import of the Challenger incident was to remind us of the sin of pride or hubris would be quickly replaced before the Night-lin- e cameras by an aerospace engineer from Hughes. The last possibility that we wish to consider is that the answer to this mystery is not to be found in a NASA manual but in the myth of Icarus, who flew too close to the sun with the wings his father had fashioned of feathers and wax, and perished in the sea. Rational, scientific man seeks rational, scientific answers. And yet, when confronted, as we all were, by the vivid image of fiery death and destruction exploding against the peaceful blue sky, a part of our soul responds. When primal, that image is etched deeper and deeper into our consciousness by the television it demands answers more basic than a faulty nozzle or a punctured fuel pump. The answer, to my mind, has to be another question: Foolish mortal, what ever made you think you could explore the mysteries of the universe without risk, without danger, ic s, self-center- cy. We delude ourselves into thinking that we can have prosperity in the cities and ca- paid. The Public Forum Tribune Readers Opinions Speaks for Itself A book, any book, should be judged or evaluated on its own merits, regardless of the conditions that brought it forth, including the state of mind or body of its author. The Book of Mormon is no exception. Its readers ought to read it for its intrinsic or lack of it, not from the conditions or situations that existed when it came forth. Letters, statements, newspaper accounts Salamander" let(including the ter), while interesting and provocative, ought not influence the evaluation of the book itself. The Book of Mormon is now and has been in the market place of public opinion for 150 years, time enough to be judged by many people; time enough to be evaluated by its own work and works; by its value (or lack of it) whether it be by doubters or believers; whether it be a story spawned from the imagination and borrowing of its writer, author, or translator, Joseph Smith Jr., or a work of fiction, like many others of its time, speculating on the origin of the American Indian. Let the Book of Mormon speak for itself. Let it be judged on its own merits. JOHN W. FITZGERALD Holladay Forum Rules Public Forum letters must be submitted exclusively to The Tribune and bear writers full name, signature and address. Names must be printed on political letters but may be withheld for good reason on others. Writers are limited to one letter every 10 days. Preference will be given to short, typewritten (double spaced) letters permitting use of the writers true name. All letters are subject to condensation. Mail to the Public Forum, The Salt Lake Tribune, P.O. Box 867, Salt Lake City, Utah 84110. dren. The children then rotate among the groups. This allows for a low student-to-aduratio and a chance for the children to experience activities and learn things that the teacher may not have expertise in. I have volunteered in my daughters classrooms the past three years. I am enthusiastic about parents being directly involved in the education of their children. It provides rich experiences for the children, more individual attention and a positive attitude toward school. My daughters enjoy the parents who help in their classrooms. Although Eastwood is 12 miles from our home, we feel the benefits of the Educational Cooperative Program make the trip worthwhile. If this program were available in our neighborhood school, it would be wonderful. CONNIE G. HADDEN lt Embarrassed Utahn am embarrassed to te a native of Utah. The predominantly Mormon Legislature has let the nation know we are a state of racists. In refusing to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Utahs lawmakers have relied on economic excuses and (even worse) the excuse that he was not an important figure in Utah's history. other states have managed Forty-seveto recognize King, (not as an important man, but as a symbol of Americas pledge to end racism) and yet Utah refuses to understand the principles of the holiday. The Mormon Church has a history of racism that I believe is still ingrained in our lawmakers. Regardless of the late President Kimballs revelation, many Mormons have never managed to question their beliefs and values concerning blacks. ERIK CHRISTIANSEN I n Take Only Top 2 come on, folks. First we get a story (Tribune, Sept 15) telling us that Mensa members are very but not necessarily sane. Then its smart Oh, the Women of Mensa Volunteers Work The Tribune editorial Governor Keeps His Promise At Public Schools Expense (Jan. 15) discounts the value of volunteers in Utah classrooms. In the fight for quality education, classroom volunteers should not be so quickly dismissed as a partial solution to the overcrowding of our schools, particularly at the elementary level. Volunteers are "planning and delivering lessons while maintaining discipline" in the Granite School District Educational Cooper- ative Program at Eastwood Elementary School. In this program a class is frequently divided into small groups and one or more parents each teach a group, while the teacher is presenting a lesson to the other chil- - News America Syndicate WASHINGTON The first 10 pages of Wednesday's New York Times contained not a single story about anything other than the explosion of the shuttle Challenger and the deaths of the seven astronauts aboard. Less perts; they have the responsibility for getting the next mission aloft as safely and swiftly as possible. But the rest of us might, in this time of national mourning for our seven brave countrymen and women, ask the harder question of ourselves: Do we really believe, in this and other areas of our national life, that we can avoid paying the price for what we achieve and enjoy? If we believe that, we are for all our science, technology and knowledge far more naive than our predecessors in this land. They knew that the struggle to achieve independence, to tame the frontier, to preserve the Union, to conquer disease and prejudice and to protect freedom in the world has always entailed sacrifice of lives and of treasure. It is only in this shallow, age that we are so foolish as to suppose that there can be gain without pain, triumph without tragedy. The conceit has invaded our language. We speak of enormously costas if they ly programs as entitlements, were a gift of the gods. We hide our massive debts behind the weasel-wor- d deficits as a way of concealing our generations profliga- Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondmans 250 years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said 3,000 years ago, so still it must be said, that the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. It was said, before Challenger turned into a fireball in the sky, raining down broken bits of metal and human flesh on the ocean waves, that President Reagan was preparing an upbeat and optimistic State of the Union message. It may be that what this nation, in its pride and innocence, needs to hear is that our debts to history, to scimust be ence, to each other and to God ( Playboy , Nov. 1985) controversy and the ensuing Forum letters extolling Densa and the virtues of mediocrityNow Judy Magid tells us in "She slays 'em with words (Jan. 26, Tribune Lifestyle) that Mensa is an organization for people whose IQ scores fall in the top five percentile. Just for the record, Mensa is an international society for people scoring in the top two percentile in IQ It may surprise many folks here that Utah Mensa currently has 106 members. Our local group generally has three to five activities each month, and members are welcome to organize other activities suited to their particular interests. MIKE KRUCHOSKI Editor Utah Synapse A15 On Challenger tion? The search for the broken parts or the faulty design is the proper focus for the ex- said: 4, 1986 News Judgment Is Correct without death? When you set your goal as zero defects, were you really so vain as to believe that fallible man could attain perfec- lamity on the farms; that the elderly can be made financially secure, while more and more children live in poverty, that we can arm those we call "freedom fighters and destroy those we call rebels; and even, vanity of vanities, build a shield that will render harmless those frightening weapons we and our adversaries possess. The men who founded this nation and who preserved it in its most troubled hours knew better than to tempt the fates by such arrogance. In his Second Inaugural, Lincoln Tuesday, February The Power of Mans Spirit May Be Found in Flight Chicago Tribune Service All that lives must die. This is true of the most microscopic germ and humans of the greatest intellect. Death defines life. Humans are unique in that they comprehend their mortality and seek through the achievement of their lives to transcend it. This achievement may take the form of selfless kindness and good works, the passion of knowing God, vast constructions, great discoveries and ideas, the creation of art or merely of a new generation. But nothing better represents or more ennobles the spirit and success of human life than the triumph that is flight, the rise of man from the muck to the skies. What Shelley called the desire of the moth for the Jar is made manifest every time a pilot hurls some clumsy, heavy craft into the air. The Psalms of the Bible speak of flying marvelously: He rode upon a cherub, and did fly; yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind. To fly is to assert, to know power, to set aside the universal truth that is gravity and bend nature's laws to ones purpose. It is the essence of freedom, of liberation and release. Even a late and crowded flight to O'Hare or Washington National is always something more. Every passenger has known that mocertainly, every pilot ment in flight that is revelation. It can come in a bright sky of crystalline clarity or in the midair furies of a giant storm or at night beneath all the stars there are to count even humming along over farmers fields in sunny haze in pursuit of a vague horizon. The oneness and perfection of the universe are apparent. suddenly and This is a moment simultaneously of elation and peace. I recall my first glider flight a quarter of a century ago, not for that thump and tumble ride in a primitive Schweitzer TG-- 2 but for the sleek, white craft that took off just before me. I watched as its pilot fastened himself into his cockpit and lowered the canopy, as the towplane trundled him into the sky and the tow rope was released. And then he vanished. It was not until my own little tub was bumping along on its a white own in the air that I saw him again er speck glittering high, high above in the darkest blue of sky. That pilot, though I never knew him, became my hero; and in its way, his attainment became part of my religion. All pilots are our heroes, even tKe worst of them. We panicked at Sputnik and raced for the moon, but behind our patriotism we cheered the Russian cosmonauts their first reach into space. We envy them. Who among us can have felt what Charles Lindbergh did emerging from the evening skies near Paris with all that ocean and darkness behind him? How unique the exultation of Chuck Yeager when he returned from battering through the sound barrier now crossed so effortlessly by mere commercial jetliners, or when he came down in an airplane from having touched the very limits of Earths atmosphere, the very doorway of space. How extraordinary for such a man to walk afterwards on a runway and look back to where he had been, to look to the sky and see what the rest of us cannot even imagine. Not all return. Beyond the edge of life is death. Two men died on the eve of Lindbergh's flight attempting the same miracle. Thousands have followed. Women died, too. Harriet Quimby, the first and bravest of American women pilots, perished before World War I in a freak accident owing to the failure of aviation by then to have invented the seat belt. Amelia Earhart disappeared somewhere over the horizon on a flight that never ended. The last flight of the space shuttle Challenger ended before all our eyes in one of the most horrible moments we shall ever know, no less horrible for its incessant retelling and reshowing. Its crew, men and women, died as we all shall die, but they were fliers. a term for thoughtful sadness As I mourn I rejoice in their last few, full seconds of life. than 24 hours after that terrible tragedy, 21 people died in the crash of a DC-- 3 in Mexico. That got three paragraphs on page five of Thursday's New York Times. Television evening news and morning talk shows have been dominated by the Challenger disaster, but not a word has been spoken about any of the highway accidents that claimed probably 77 lives on Tuesday. I bring this up because people have telephoned me, asking questions about the news and value judgments of the American people. It is important, I think, for us to ponder what sets the Challenger tragedy apart from routine accidents and most other calamities. An automobile collision is an accident. The explosion of Challenger was a national disaster. That Mexican airliner went down in the indifference of the fog that enshrouded the Los Mochis landing strip; Challenger exploded in full view of millions of proud and caring people, including parents, relatives and friends of the seven astronauts. Does that make the lives lost on the shuttle more precious to God than those lost in a highway crash? one woman asked me. No, I replied, but in the context of public interest and news, to compare a highway collision with the explosion of Challenger is like comparing a pileup of bullock carts going to market to the departure and perils of Christopher Columbus. Americans know and appreciate that driving a car is a routine risk that we take because we must. Taking a shuttle into space is a greater risk that people take because they have compulsions to beat down frontiers, to learn the unknown, to serve at the cutting edge of human progress. News coverage of the Challenger tragedy has been and will remain intense because it has opened a few secret nooks and crannies and allowed us to learn a bit about the speed with which the Pentagon and White House were moving to militarize outer space. The Pentagon has acknowledged that the loss of Challenger will have a serious impact on military programs designed to keep America informed as to what the Soviet Union is doing, and on U.S. efforts to rush forward with the Strategic Defense Initiative (Star Wars). The media will focus on this fallout from the explosion for a long time. Then, there is the tendency to assess blame in any national disaster the kind of blame never assigned in an auto accident or small plane crash. Did NASA officials ignore a warning from Rockwell International that icy conditions might imperil the launch of Challenger? Has NASA been cutting corners because of foreign competition, trying to meet a dangerously-buslaunch schedule? Are the lives of congressmen, teachers, journalists and other civilians being put at risk for no purpose other than to maximize public support for greater appropriations for y NASA? There are many reasons why the exploextraordinary news story that merits, and long will get, extraordinary attention from the media. They are important, valid reasons that go far beyond valuing one human beings life above anoth- sion of Challenger is an ers. Senator Soaper Attaining perfection does nothing but give you a hard act to follow. Life was less confusing back when blackboards were black. Jack W. Germond and Jules WitcOver Success in Space Became Too Commonplace Chicago Tribune Service Its hard to believe that it was 27 years ago when seven bright-eye- d young men, all from the military, stood before curious reporters at the fledgling National Aeronautics and Space Administration in a small building across Lafayette Park from the White House. These were the Mercury astronauts, the original American pioneers in space, including Navy Cmdr. Alan Shepard, who was to be the first American to make a flight two years later, and Marine Capt. John Glenn, who was to be the first American to orbit the earth nine months after that. At that time, the notion of a human being sitting on the end of one of those stupendous missiles and being blasted off into space Yet the. was, to put it mildly, seven men selected for the mission were as in their and as matter-of-fac- t remarks to the press that day as to make it seem almost as if they were planning to do nothing more dangerous than catching a bus downtown. This brimming optimism and confidence on the part of the men selected did not at first rub off on the American public. The immensity of the feat they were undertaking e blasturned the first several toffs into nationwide fingernail-biters- . The nations eyes were glued to the television screens as first Shepard, then Gus Grissom and finally Glenn were hurtled into space. Eventually six of the original seven made flights. Of the orginal seven and all those who WASHINGTON - sub-orbit- al mind-bogglin- man-in-spac- followed, including Neil Armstrong, the first man to set foot on the moon, Glenn came to be identified as Americas space hero. In a sense, that role was ordained from the start. That very first day when the Mercury Seven were introduced, his Boy Scout personality shone through, and he lived up to it throughout his space career. One night at a reception at the home of Glenns friend, Robert Kennedy, several of us got into a conversation about the publics attitude toward the space program. The question was whether its success would bring about greater American interest and investment in space, or whether it would be difficult to sustain the program at the high level it then enjoyed. Someone observed that the public after all the success was becoming almost blase and suggested rather indelicately that those e shots seemed almost early routine now. The usually reserved Glenn, obviously piqued at the remark, frowned and said: Let me tell you, it didn't seem routine to me when I was sitting up there not knowing whether my heat shield was in place or whether I was going to be incinerated." You could, as they say, hear a pin drop. On Glenn's mission, you will recall, an indicator light in his capsule malfunctioned, raising the possibility of trouble with the nose-conshield that was to protect the capinto the earths atmosphere. sule on Glenns comment on the reality of the risk was tragically underscored in 1967, when Grissom and two other astronauts perished in a fire inside their Apollo spacecraft man-in-spac- e y as it rested on its launch pad. Still, the program went on with more and more spectacular successes, to the point that they almost came to be taken as automatic. Glenns rather testy remark that night comes to mind now in the wake of the tragedy at Cape Canaveral. For all the incredible achievement record of the program, there is nothing at all routine about the undertaking. Yet the public, until the destruction of the Challenger space shuttle, had indeed come to accept success as so normal that the pioneers no longer were restricted to experienced test pilots, engineers and the like. A young woman schoolteacher was selected to go along for the ride, and to teach a nation of young students what it was man-in-spa- like. As a result of what happened, it is likely that it will be some considerable time before the nation looks at the future efforts to put Americans in space as routine again. The trivialization of the tremendously incredible feats that American astronauts have performed has had an abrupt and wrenching comeuppance. Some will say now that the program overreached itself, for public relations or other reasons, in opening the flights to civilians. But the decision to include a civilian, and a schoolteacher at that, was a mark of the peaceful nature and civilian direction of the space program, and is hard to fault. What can be faulted is our national tendency to take everything for granted even the incredible in technology and in the human spirit. |
