Challenger Seven

Per Aspera, Ad Astra

Twenty-five years ago today, seven brave astronauts were lost as the space shuttle Challenger exploded, 73 seconds after lift-off. At the time, I wrote a song which has been performed at numerous science fiction conferences, conventions and gatherings over the years. I couldn't find a decent recording of the song, so I thought I'd just post the lyrics here. Per aspera, ad astra, my friends. Per aspera, ad astra.

This was written in honor of the Challenger Seven: Mike Smith, Dick Scobee, Gregory Jarvis, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnik, and Christa McAuliffe, one week after the explosion.

There's just no way to count the cost; it's hard to understand.
But even with our pain and loss, we cannot let it end.
Oh Challenger, true light of liberty
A guide for us and our posterity.

I challenge you to seek your dreams of space.
I challenge you, the nation and the race
To be everything that I had hoped to be.
I challenge you as a memorial to me.

We are a land of pioneers, and many brave ones have died.
But though we've lost the best of us, we're proud to say we tried.
And one small step became a giant leap,
A memory for a nation to keep.

I challenge you to seek your dreams of space.
I challenge you, the nation and the race
To be everything that I had hoped to be.
I challenge you as a memorial to me.

If they were standing here today, they'd say, America, we love you.
And you've got to keep on striving to explore the stars above you.
To end what we have lived for would be wrong.
We pass the torch to you; keep it burning strong.

With rockets raging through the sky, we watched our heroes die.
They took the risks, they challenged space, with knowledge as the prize.
For if we never dare, we never can achieve.
And all we need is the courage to believe.

I challenge you to seek your dreams of space.
I challenge you, the nation and the race
To be everything that I had hoped to be.
I challenge you as a memorial to me.

Be everything that I had hoped to be.
I challenge you as a memorial to me.

Tucson Tragedy

The tragedy in Tucson has caused a shock wave that is still reverberating round the world.

In the wake of something so inexplicable, so abominable, people want to assess blame. Could anything have been done to prevent this tragedy? Did anyone suspect that this man would do something so heinous?

There are lots of theories being propounded, particularly by liberals. Did Rush Limbaugh set the gunman off? Were the pugnacious comments from the Tea Party candidates to blame? (A quick review of the guy’s political leanings seem to indicate that he was more Leftist than Limbaugh-like.)

And then there are the gun control advocates, screaming in outrage. How could this man have been allowed to have a gun in the first place? I heard a radio DJ suggesting that if guns were outlawed, he wouldn’t have been able to pull out a Glock with a 33 round magazine and shoot, and shoot, and shoot, until some bystanders with nerves of iron tackled him while he was trying to load another mag. Elderly Patricia Maisch actually snatched the magazine out of Loughner’s hand while he struggled to reload. Bless her.

I have a few things to say about this line of thinking. First of all, if an unbalanced person isn’t able to get his hands on a gun, he can always download instructions for creating a bomb out of common household items from off the Internet. Shucks, he could have killed 60 people instead of six. Pandora’s Internet box is open, and it’s too late to slam the lid down now. Second, laws banning gun ownership are only going to be obeyed by law abiding citizens. Criminals and crazies are not law abiding citizens. Banning guns will merely strip the common man of his or her right to protect himself. I will say this: The only thing that might--and I stress the word might--have made a difference at that supermarket, is if one of those law abiding citizens had been carrying his legally acquired firearm, and had the presence of mind to pull it out and kill the bastard before he’d had the opportunity to shoot nineteen people. There is no way to say whether or not this scenario would have made a difference or not, obviously, since it didn’t happen, and no one knows how they will react in such a horrendous situation—until they are faced with the terrifying reality. I don’t know myself whether or not I could have “stepped up”. I hope I never have to find out.

The most disgusting thing of all is that certain politicians want to use this tragedy to further their own agendas. They don’t care whether or not Rush Limbaugh really provoked the shooting spree. They just want him off the air because he makes people think, and liberals are pretty sure that’s a dangerous thing.

The simple truth is, no one could have predicted this. Even people who got some vague, disturbing feeling from Loughner most likely never would have thought he would take a gun and shoot innocent people in a crowd. Why? For the very simple reason that it is unthinkable, that’s why. Anne Frank said, “In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.” We all want to believe that. And I do. I really do believe that most people are really good at heart.

But there are monsters in the world. If you’re very, very lucky, you’ll never come face to face with one. But they’re out there. Seventy-five years ago, a monster took over the hearts and minds of a strong nation and slew six million Jews within a short period of time.

But some people want you to believe that there are no monsters, no real ones. They want you to give up your ability to protect yourself. They’ll tell you it’s for your own good. They may even sincerely believe it. That’s the police’s job, they’ll say. (And when seconds count, the police are only minutes away…)

The predators are salivating at the very thought of the populace voluntarily giving up their right to bear arms. I’m certain of this. I’ve seen it before. Years ago, we were transferred to Ft. Bragg, NC. We started house hunting. This was during Desert Storm. A great many of the troops had been deployed, leaving wives and children behind in Fayetteville. We were told by the police chief that violent crime jumped 200% in Fayetteville after the soldiers were deployed. The predators knew their prey had been left alone and unprotected.

It seems like there have been a lot of predators out lately; a lot of unbalanced people shooting, a lot of crazies using violence and mayhem to garner a little time in the spotlight. Whatever is causing it—Rush Limbaugh, voodoo, the full moon—this is not the time to roll over and play dead. This is not the time to surrender your weapons and let the government “take care of you.” Remember how the Nazis “took care of” people (after systematically disarming them.)

I am basically a very unassuming person. I am not rich, or powerful, or physically strong. I don’t have military experience or police training. I don’t have a personal body guard, or a state-of-the-art alarm system, or an electrified fence around my property.

What I do have is a .45 caliber handgun and enough training to put my shots where I want them to go. I don’t know whether or not I could have made a difference in Tucson. But by God, I like to think I would have tried. It might not have helped. But it might have given little Christina Taylor Green a fighting chance.