8. Ronald Wilson Reagan - Shuttle Challenger Disaster Address
Ladies and Gentlemen, I"d planned to speak to you tonight to report on the state of the
Union, but the events of earlier today have led
me to change those plans. Today is a day
for mourning and remembering. Nancy and I are pained to the core by the
tragedy of the
shuttle Challenger. We know we share this pain with all of the people of our country. This
is truly a national loss.
Nineteen years ago, almost to the day, we lost three
astronauts in a terrible accident on
the ground. But we"ve never
lost an astronaut in flight. We"ve never had a tragedy like
this. And perhaps we"ve forgotten the courage it took for the crew of the shuttle. But they,
the Challenger Seven, were aware of the dangers, but overcame them and did their jobs
brilliantly. We mourn seven heroes: Michael Smith, Dick Scobee, Judith Resnik, Ronald
McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Gregory Jarvis, and
Christa McAuliffe. We mourn their loss as a nation together.
For the families of the seven, we cannot bear, as you do, the full
impact of this tragedy.
But we feel the loss, and we"re thinking
about you so very much. Your loved ones were
daring and brave, and they had that special grace, that special spirit that says, "Give me a
challenge, and I"ll meet it with joy." They had a hunger to explore the universe and
discover its truths.
They wished to serve, and they did. They served all of us.
We"ve grown used to wonders in this century. It"s hard to dazzle us. But for twentyfive
years the United States space program has been doing just that. We"ve grown used to
the idea of space, and, perhaps we forget that we"ve only just begun. We"re still pioneers.
They, the members of the Challenger crew, were pioneers.
And I want to say something to the schoolchildren of America who were watching the
live coverage of the shuttle"s takeoff.
I know it"s hard to understand, but sometimes painful things like this happen. It"s all
part of the process of exploration and discovery. It"s all part
of taking a chance and expanding man"s horizons. The future doesn"t belong to the
fainthearted. it belongs to the brave. The Challenger crew was pulling
us into the future,and we"ll continue to follow them.
I"ve always had great faith in and respect for our space program. And what happened
today does nothing to diminish it. We don"t hide our space program. We don"t keep
secrets and cover things up. We do it all up front and
in public. That"s the way freedom is,
and we wouldn"t change it for a minute.
We"ll continue our quest in space. There will
be more shuttle flights and more shuttle
crews and, yes, more volunteers, more civilians, more teachers in space. Nothing ends
here. our hopes and our journeys continue.
I want to add that I wish I could talk to
every man and woman
who works for NASA, or
who worked on this mission and tell them: "Your dedication and professionalism have
moved and impressed us for decades. And we know of your anguish. We share it."
There"s a coincidence today. On this day three hundred and ninety years ago, the great
explorer Sir Francis Drake died aboard ship off the coast of Panama. In his lifetime the
great frontiers were the oceans, and a historian later said, "He lived
by the sea, died on it,
and was buried in it." Well, today, we can say of the Challenger crew: Their dedication
was, like Drake"s, complete.
The crew of the space shuttle Challenger
honored us by the manner
in which they lived their lives.
We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they
prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and "slipped the surly bonds of earth" to
"touch the face of God."
Thank you.
英语演讲8. Ronald Wilson Reagan - Shuttle Challenger Disaster Address
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