Your prayers, your thoughts, your tears...our tears.
These men and women worked in near anonymity. Driven not by a search for personal gain, but an unquenchable thirst for knowledge, they flung themselves heavenward and surfed the wild winds of space, taming the vast frozen nothingness that surrounds this vibrant blue sphere we all share.
These are heroes, and not because they perished, but because they lived at all. These fathers, and mothers, sisters, brothers, sons, and daughters who dared to challenge the everlasting cosmic night riding in their metal and fire chariot, are elsewhere now…a better place.
They leave behind grieving families, and heart-broken nations.
Look skyward, we should...all of us, look for a star streaking across the early morning sky, before the kiss of the sun wakes the breeze and dissolves the mists, and bid them Godspeed, these brave souls who dared the wild winds.
"In the skies today we saw destruction and tragedy. Yet farther than we can see there is comfort and hope. In the words of the prophet Isaiah, "Lift your eyes and look to the heavens. Who created all these? He who brings out the starry hosts one by one and calls them each by name. Because of His great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.""The same Creator who names the stars also knows the names of the seven souls we mourn today."
"The crew of the shuttle Columbia did not return safely to Earth; yet we can pray that all are safely home."---George W. Bush
