hapaboy, make no mistake, daniel dancerboy(living in the USA) hates the United States and probably could care less about those astronauts, he was less than sympathetic about similar threads relating to sept.11 . Your completely right, the guy is a total ASSHOLE
hey dickhead, have you had enough of spreading lies about me yet? i LUV the USA (although i'm not living there at the moment). 9.11 : do i have sympathy? sure do. do i think it was blown out of all proportion? you're damn right i do. astronauts: check this out dude -- i DON'T consider it that big a deal! sure, it's an unfortunate incident i'd rather not have occurred, but i'm not heart broken over it. you know what a REAL tragedy is? the millions of people dying each year for want of food. compared to that, the space thing doesn't even get a footnote in the "History of the World" by Dan M. you gotta realize, those people were pros, accutely aware of all the risks and they STILL chose to go. it's not like anyone put a gun to their heads and forced them to. so yeah, it's a pity it happened, but, believe me, i'm not losing any sleep over it. total asshole? oh well, i've been called worse.
daniel_m, in what way do you think it was blown out of proportion? of course there have been incidents in which a greater number of lives have been lost. however, the importance of something is relative to your life and/or what you compare it to. if i was a poor, starving person in africa, i might say, "hey, what about all of us?!" but to an american living in america, 9/11 is a huge tragedy for our country. i don't think it was blown out of proportion at all.
"a huge tragedy" - yes, i agree. i just have to take issue when i hear it being paid greatest-tragedy-to-afflict-mankind type reverence...
Many of those affected emotionally, or even profoundly, by the 9/11 events or by the Columbia's destruction may have difficulty explaining their reactions. Using logic along the lines of the above-quoted post - comparing the numbers of deaths in the particular tragedy to those in some other, statistically more "important" but less widely reported or recognized event or set of events - some observers have accused the public and the media of engaging in "narcissistic compassion": excessive emotional reactions reflecting egocentrism, in effect the exploitation and exaggeration of a relatively minor if unfortunate occurrence in the service of selfish or even demented desires and compulsions. Such observers fail, however, to discern something that has been well-understood at least since the time of Aristotle, and that has been recognized and experienced by human beings at least since the the beginning of recorded history. Put simply, it appears to be a fundamental truth of human existence that we feel a unique sense of loss when someone we admire, or something that symbolizes our highest aspirations, is struck down. This aspect of our lives is indeed so fundamental that, when seen in its positive forms as well, it almost defines us as human beings. Many of us believe or intuitively sense that the exploration of space and the pursuit of scientific knowledge are among the finest and greatest endeavors of humanity. When individuals undertake personal risks for the sake of these endeavors, and lose their lives in the process, we mourn their passing, and we salute their bravery. We believe that the astronauts fully deserve to be considered heroes - worthy of praise, respect, and emulation. We may also feel concern that the objectives for which they sacrificed and which we prize so highly might be threatened - either by the fear that the tragedy inspires, or by the reactions of those who seem incapable of grasping why we consider the space program worthy of our best efforts and, when unavoidable, of great personal risk. There are those who respond to the loss of a space shuttle's crew, or to mass murder and destruction at the global centers of cooperation, progress, and defense against barbarism, with glibly self-superior carping, with political quibbling, or even with the depraved rantings of the mentally enslaved. Such individuals merely diminish themselves, and show themselves worthy of our attention only as examples of those attitudes and belief systems that we need to leave behind, both for the sake of our ideals and increasingly for the sake of our survival.