Challenger Explosion, Emerging Political Ideas, Library Haunts, and John Michael Talbot Music
In which Teófilo talks about seeing Ronald Reagan, the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster, library haunts, and his encounter with John Michael Talbot's music.
Space Shuttle Challenger Explosion
On January 28, 1986 I took my wife to Villa Ranchaero, Box Elder's supermarket and shopping hub. It was a calm day, weather-wise. I waited for her in the car as she bought some groceries. Upon her return she asked me,
- ¿Qué quiere decir "blew up"?
- Explotar - I said. "To explode."
- El Space Shuttle she finished.
The words "blew up" and "Space Shuttle" didn't belong in the same sentence. I turned on the radio. The newscast confirmed my worst fears: Space Shuttle Challenger had exploded in flight. NASA presumed the lost of all hands, including Christa McAuliffe. She was to be the first teacher in space. All her students had seen her demise, along with her family.
We rushed home. I turned the TV on CNN and there it was.
Talking heads began to blame the accident on the solid rocket boosters' "O-rings. " These were large gaskets that sealed the various joints of the solid-rocket boosters. These solid-rocket boosters had been mounted on both sides of the external fuel tank. The Shuttle rode piggyback on the external tanks. Below freezing temperatures that morning at the launch site degraded the O-rings seal. Hot gases and flames erupted from the gap the faulty seal had created. Eventually, the rocket broke its mount and pivoted into the tank. The tank exploded.
Later, investigators would determine the astronauts survived the explosion. They died after the crew compartment hit the sea's surface. Congressional hearings would show how managers overrode engineers concerns that fateful morning.
I was distraught. Five years before I'd been at the Marshall Space Flight Center receiving my prize. Everyone had been so upbeat that week after the first Space Shuttle's launch. Now the Nation was mourning an entire astronaut crew.
President Reagan addressed the Nation that night. He was a master communicator. Among other things he said:
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."
Among the Presidents I'd come to know during my lifetime, Reagan is supreme in my estimation.
Those were the heady days of the Reagan Administration. President Reagan even visited Rapid City, landing on Ellsworth in October of 1986. I took a picture of the Presidential Limousine, where one can see his arm extended in greetings.
International Landscape
The mid 1980's was also the time when the Reagan Administration attempted to remove Nicaragua's Sandinista regime by force. The Administration had been funding an opposition guerilla for that effect. Most Democrats didn't give a hoot about Nicaragua and were hostile to Reagan's policy. As the Democrats dilly-dallied I sympathized with Reagan's position. Besides, I had no sympathy toward Fidel Castro-funded "peoples' fronts." The Iran-Contra affair was gestating and the scandal was about to break. It will bring to the fore unfamiliar names, like LTC Oliver North and many others. That was back when responsible adults led the Republican Party, unlike today’s collection of raging narcissists incapable of governance.
Of course, the US blundered by supporting El Salvador's right wingers. The philosophy of "the enemy of the enemy is my friend" seldom paid off for us. In 1980, right-wing death squads killed San Salvador's Archbishop, St. Óscar Arnulfo Romero. I put his death at the feet of the American foreign policy establishment of the time.
The Cold War was lifting, though we couldn't tell. In the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev was into his glasnost and perestroika. The countries in the communist orbit were restless. China and the US were becoming close. Logic dictated that a more open China would become a more democratic China. The 1989 Tiannamen Massacre of students by the Chinese communist killed that hope.
Library Haunts
Mercie and I took to ransack the local libraries, starting with the one at Ellsworth. When we grew comfortable in the area, we started to go Rapid City's.
I read every Star Trek paperback novel that came out during the '80s. Some of these focused on the original show's characters. Other novels’ principals were the Star Trek Next Generation's characters, a new show back then. I read them all, about 30 of them combined.
I also read a lot of American and military history, as well as current affairs. One of my favorites was the one detailing the makeup of H-bombs by some dude who'd figured them out. I also remember reading Orwell's Animal Farm. My conservative political and philosophical leanings were then emerging into my mind and intellect.
In matters theological, I read for the first time Fr. Richard P. McBrien’s Catholicism. I would get my own copy later, which I would underline and write marginal glosses attacking his laxity in moral affairs. In fact, I think a good book is one I read and argue with because I learn so much from the fact of disagreement. It’s worth doing it. One learns through opposition.
My Encounter With John Michael Talbot’s Music
My fondness for the music by the pioneer Christian contemporary musician, the Catholic John Michael Talbot, dates to this time. Once again, Harriet Vickerman was the catalyst. She passed on to me two cassette tapes. One was a mix of John Michael and brother Terri Talbot’s music, as well as a John Michael’s The Lord’s Supper. The other was a blue cassette original containing John Michael’s full album, Heart of the Shepherd. I must’ve burned up those tapes as I played them so often. They brought me so much peace, specially, Heart of the Shepherd which remains to this day my favorite from all of John Michael’s productions. His music has so much earnestness to it, so much spirit, and a luminosity that basks whoever listens to it, that I was hooked. In time I would buy most, if not all of his music.