Inconsiderate idiots

[Drizzt]

Honestly, I don't find those jokes offensive...
Maybe it's because I live in an area where these kind of jokes are more than normal, or maybe because I'm a bit more realistic than the normal murcer.


The normal murcer, I mean, is the guy who believe that the death of seven people is a big tragedy just because television has done a lot of rumor about this.
The normal murcer, I mean, is the guy who doesn't know that there are thousand of people who die every month, without TV even considering them.


Ok, I'm really upset...

[CHHAS]

People dying is a tragedy no matter what the cause, but I do agree with Drizzt in a way, it amazes me that 7 people dying in a shuttle disaster can send an entire world into shock, but countless people dying every day from hunger, disease and war barely raises an eyebrow anymore.

[Jon P. Inghram]

I agree with Drizzt 100% on that. If 7 people died in a car accident the national media wouldn't give a crap about it. Heck, I bet if the same 7 astronauts were killed in a car accident it would barely make the national news. It was the shuttle burning up that is the issue really, as heartless as it may sound.

[KRSESQ]

The analogy between a space shuttle accident and a car wreck doesn't hold up. Space shuttle flights are still unique and noteworthy events, whereas automobile trips are not. Space shuttle flights are highly technical, complex, fault-intolerant events, whereas car trips are not.

The analogy might be valid if it were applied to the very earliest days of automobile travel. If there were only four cars in the entire world, and it took seven people to operate one, and one of them went off a cliff fully loaded while on a cross-country trip, that would be BIG NEWS, despite the fact that thousands of people get killed in horse-and-buggy accidents on a regular basis.

The tragedy arises from the fact that the shuttle astronauts represent every single one of us. They represent the best of what we all aspire to, and their deaths killed a little bit of that best in us all.

Kevin

[gt40]

There were 7 students killed in an avalanche while skying in British Columbia, Canada the same day as the shuttle disaster.
How many of you knew that?
Yes, the shuttle disaster was tragic and emotional and unique. It will leave a mark on all of us that have any interest in scientific advancements, but you soon realize that the human loss is not unique to any given day.
Life goes on, sometimes a little humour helps us cope - kind of like a defence mechanism.

[Indiana]

The tragedy arises from the fact that the shuttle astronauts represent every single one of us. They represent the best of what we all aspire to, and their deaths killed a little bit of that best in us all.

Amen.

Although I think that the media excessively overrates the impact of this desaster (most likely even voluntarily to get better sales... )

Seeing what dangerous and technically extraordinarily difficult missions such trips into space are, I find it more astonishing that in a whole 40 year time period we only saw two of those large accidents.
Things CAN go wrong, that's life. It's a "shit happens" thing in this case, if you ask me.

[KvHagedorn]

It's important because a lot of people's hopes ride with the astronauts. People attach more importance to a child dying too, because some hope for the future is lost.