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Simon Phipps's personal commentary

Losing the Last Hope [SocioPolitico]

I'd seen some comments in e-mail on Friday night about the fact that the space shuttle landing was going to be spectacular, visible across the sky of several states. When I sat for breakfast on Saturday morning I was truly shocked to see the video footage of the shuttle breaking into hundreds of shards and cascading in streaks of brilliant light to land scattered across hundreds of miles of Texas.

It's a tragedy for the families involved, and my heart goes out to them as they come to terms with what they saw as they waited for their loved ones at the landing site and watched powerlessly as the events unfolded. I felt the feeling of loss, yet I can't completely explain it - a loss felt across America yesterday, bringing flags to half mast and replacing all programming on TV.

The loss is of course that of people. But it is also a loss of a symbol, one of the last sources of true national pride at a time when the nation feels under attack from abroad and more importantly has its liberties under attack from within in the best Wag The Dog style. The loss was of seven national treasures riding in a symbol of the pioneering. That's why America is mourning so deeply.

posted at 11:10 AM (UK) | |