Where were you 20 years ago?

If you're my age or older, you have this image (courtesy NASA) seared into your memory like the generation before has the film of Kennedy's head going "back, and to the left" seared into theirs. Heck, it's difficult for me to even believe that I'm old enough for there to be adults alive today that weren't yet born when the Challenger exploded.

Well, as most my age I'm sure, I distinctly and irreversibly remember exactly where I was, and exactly how I felt, when the disaster was announced. The experience was almost literally heartbreaking when it happened. Since the 2nd grade, when my school in Barstow, California had a guest speaker from NASA discussing with us the early shuttle missions, I dared to dream that maybe someday I would get to go to space. But I knew, instantly, upon seeing the cloud of destruction on TV, while in the 7th grade in Philadelphia, that the odds I'd get to go to space in my lifetime would be severely diminished, if not eliminated.

When the Challenger met with injustice, I was in Dr. Fink's class at Benjamin Rush Middle School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Science class. Appropriate if there was such a thing. I remember the principal making an announcement on the PA system that all teachers were to turn on their TVs, as there had been a horrible disaster. The principal gave no clues over the PA as to what had happen, but it wasn't necessary. Before the announcement was even over, Dr. Fink had the TV on, and the aforementioned image was at that time imprinted onto our minds.

I say the Challenger met with injustice because we now know that the fundamental reason it was destroyed was because management failed to listen to their engineers. Sure, there were many other things that went wrong, but the bottom line is that if the managers listened to the engineers, the Challenger would have lasted a little long, if not indefinitely.

Of course, the shame of it is that it wouldn't be the only shuttle disaster seared into my memory. 2003 would bring another terrible scene of disaster in the sky. I'm not sure it met with the same injustice as Challenger, but it was injustice nonetheless. I think it's fair to say if we need to learn one thing out of all this, it's that we should at least give due credence to what our engineers tell us. They're not generally trying to stand in the way of truth, so much as illuminate the path to it. Out of respect for the memory of the crews of Challenger and Columbia, I hope I'm not the only one that feels this way.