EDITORIAL: Reconsidering risk

ORIGINALLY WRITTEN
Now that the Columbia disaster has shaken us, at least momentarily, from our nonchalant attitude toward modern space travel, the mind-boggling question we’re asking these days is not how could such a tragedy happen, but how could it happen so rarely?

In the aftermath of this event, some will no doubt challenge the safety record of NASA and argue the advisability of future missions, but the truth is the army of engineers there has made space travel amazingly safe-considering the enormous risks inherent to the venture.

No doubt the seven astronauts who lost their lives in this horrible event were far more aware of the risks than we could ever be. And yet, listening to their own words in prerecorded interviews, or hearing the witness of friends and coworkers, these folks gladly accepted those risks because they saw the cause as being worthy of them.

In our “Fear Factor” and X-Games society, risk is manufactured for the sake of a momentary, frivolous thrill. So many of the rest of us avoid risk altogether, being content to get by with a “safe” life.

Somewhere between those extremes is an exhilarating life worth living-and a life worth the risk of losing-because the cause has great value beyond ourselves. -DR

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