One of my most poignant memories from high school came in my sophomore. An aviation enthusiast, I walked into my history classroom after lunch, greeting my classmates with a smile and an enthusiastic rehash of my day's escapades. I was urged to silence, however, by the somber faces that greeted me as we sat together and listened for the entire hour to the events that were happening in the wake of the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger. Our discussions later in the week would revolve around whether we should return to space, and the consensus was not whether, but when. You see, we realized, even then, that the deaths of those seven astronauts, while tragic, would be in vain if their life's work were not continued by other astronauts. And, indeed, while it would be some time before the shuttle resumed flight, the very year that began with the space shuttle tragedy would be bookended by the December triumph of pilots Dick Rutan and Jeanna Yeager as they flew the Voyager in the first ever round the world flight without refueling. They knew then, as saner minds among us know now, that risks must be taken in our quest to move forward; the envelope must be continually pushed if we are to advance.

As I write this, the space shuttle Discovery sits on a launch pad in Florida, enduring delay after delay by an organization that fears the possibility of a mishap that could fast turn public opinion against the space program.

It all causes me to wonder: have we become a nation of sissies? Has life become our God to the point where we fear death, which to this point has been pretty definitively inevitable? Will our future risk taking adventures be limited to the strictly supervised, tethered escapades of reality shows such as Fear Factor, or will we get beyond this, realizing that great gains only come with great risks? I hope for the latter, but I fear the former, in a society which increasingly attempts to suppress even its own emotions in the quest for a safety and security it will never attain.

We have gained so much from the space program that we simply take the accomplishments for granted. As I sit here typing this very article, it will be sent to you via a wireless internet connection that was made possible because of "space age" technology; indeed, many of the people who will read this article will do so through internet connections that are relayed by the very satellites that would not be possible without rockets and spaceships to put them there. Our knowledge, our communication, and our very lives have been made better by a space program that we cannot afford to abandon. Sure, there may be fear in the launch of another mission in the wake of the last, failed mission, but perhaps that very fear is needed for us to appreciate that our astronauts are among the soldiers we must recognize for the risks they take to make a better place in which we live, and our children will live. Those deaths should serve to remind us that there are many whose risks are underappreciated in giving us the gifts we have today, and they are not limited to the astronauts. They include firefighters, policemen, and yes, even teachers in certain schools.

To answer my title question, I don't think we have become a nation of sissies. I DO think, however, that we have become a nation of people who care far too much what the media thinks and who spend far too little of our time being guided by our OWN thoughts; our OWN opinions. We cannot allow the opinions of others who overstate risks to sell their articles to control our policies. We must continue, mindful of the sacrifices of those who perished in the line of duty, but not halted by those sacrifices.