OI- Overrated Intelligence

February 1st, 2003, a day to remember. I was scedualed to play at 9:36 for solo and ensamble. As my dad returned from getting a battery for his camera, and Mr. Pringle arrived, something was being mentioned, but would not be made clear. My dad hushed anyone around who would talk about it, whatever it might have been.
When I returned to the cafeteria, where people were rehearsing for their turn to play, my parents informed me of the tragic news. The Space Shuttle Columbia had exploded on reentry. 6 Americans and 1 Israeli were aboard. At that time, speculation was going about that it had been an act of terrorism. No one could say for sure. I stood breathless as this news reached my ears. My jaw hung slightly open. My mind went blank. I no longer cared about waiting for my score from the judge. Pictures of the Space Shuttle Discovery exploding filtered through my mind. I was in shock. I could do nothing.
We returned home to find my brothers, 7 and 11, were watching the television closely. My dog was crying out for attention. He did not understand a thing that was going on, although he senced the tention in the air. He looked to me for comfort and I ran my fingers through his velvety soft fur to reassure him that we were all ok, that he was not to worry. My focus turned to the TV, where the rest of my family sat staring blankly in awe. As the images were replayed repeatedly, I felt a hoplessness that has not touched me since I first saw the images from September 11th. First thing you saw was an image of the shuttle on decent. The next thing you knew, bits and pieces of debris were breaking off of the shuttle. Never, in the history of space flight, has a module exploded on reentry.
As news was updated, as information became available, and live briefings were shown, my sence of helplessness grew. Columbia had lost contact with NASA, just before the explosion. The explosion had occured aproxx. 40 miles in the air, meaning that Columbia had not been hit by a rocket, thus this had not been an act of terrorism. A missle does not have the capability of hitting anything 40 miles high in the sky.
As even more information was released, I learned that upon take off, padding for the space shuttle had fallen off, hitting the left wing. Once docking at the space station, the crew looked into the damage of the shuttle. They concluded the damage was not bad enough to keep them from home. Before communication was lost, however, reports were being received from the shuttle that the damage was affecting the return flight more than had been expected. Minutes later all communication and tracking was lost. The debre field ranges from Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Luisiana. Officals are telling all citizens to please not touch any debre you find, and to please contact local authorities immediately. Data may be collected from the debre that tells what happened.
It may be years yet until anyone is sure what exactly happened. Controllers are still in shock at the NASA control center in Houston. This mission is not being closed. Currently there are 3 men still on the space station. They have enough supplies to last them until the end of June. There is also an excape module on the space station if the 3 remaining astronauts need to return home.
I would like to send out my heartfelt sympathy to those families who lost loved ones on this mission, today. Their loss is being felt in echo around the world, today. They are remaining very brave. God bless them, and bring them peace.