20 years ago today a teacher rushed into my classroom and had a hurried conversation with my teacher. The TV, which I don't recall being on before, was turned on and we all sat huddled in shock as the remnants of the invincible American space program sifted down through the cold Florida morning. Thos images still haunt me. They make up some of the first of a sadly growing list of pictures that, when I see them, I recoil in shock and feel the grief and horror as fresh as the day I first saw them.
President Reagan said it best and I won't even try to imitate his prose:
"And I want to say something to the school children of America who were watching the live coverage of the shuttle's takeoff. I know it is hard to understand, but sometimes painful things like this happen. It's all part of the process of exploration and discovery. It's all part of taking a chance and expanding man's horizons. The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave. The Challenger crew was pulling us into the future, and we'll continue to follow them.
"We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved good-bye and 'slipped the surly bonds of Earth' to 'touch the face of God"
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