November 05, 2003
Quote of the Day
A recent reader opinion letter author stated that the loss of the Columbia crew has caused him to question the value of human spaceflight and conclude that the space program has, "served its purpose". The letter writer offered several unsupported conclusions about space exploration. The most notable conclusion was that, "Man is not a spaceling".
If I follow the writer's logic correctly, we need to make some major changes in America. Apparently, man is not a suitable "roadling" either. Given that 26,000 people die in automobile accidents every year, we should stop making and driving autos. Fire fighting, law enforcement, football, auto car racing, and aviation also kill people every year. We should also ban those professions. Perhaps we should ban printing and burn books since we run the risk of getting a deadly infection from untreated paper cuts. Perhaps we should just all dig a hole in the ground, crawl in, cover our heads and never come out.
Man (including womankind) is not a timid creature. Fortunately, human beings have an irresistible urge to "push the edge of the envelope" and that includes challenging new frontiers. Like that letter writer, some early European commentators concluded that the newly "discovered" America was too forbidding and inhospitable to justify further exploration and settlement. Moving into space is as natural an act as breathing is for humans.
Posted by Russell Whitaker at November 5, 2003 10:14 PM | TrackBack