COLETTE BROOKS
At this point in its trajectory, while traveling at a Mach number
of 1.92 at an altitude of 46,000 feet, the Challenger was totally
enveloped in the explosive burn .
321
This account, so factual as to be deemed definitive, tells uS precisely
why the Challenger exploded. On quite another level, it tells uS
nothing; it is as blankly informative as the Vietnam Memorial, as
any of a number of documents Americans have amassed at troubling
moments to ward off uncertainty, to subdue the unknown .
Should
you
reach the Pacific Ocean . . . .
- President Jefferson to Lewis and Clark
In 1806 Thomas Jefferson sent Meriwether Lewis and William
Clark off to explore the unknown territory west of the Missouri
River. He cautioned them to take care upon their departure from
the United States; no one knew what dangers or difficulties lay in
wait across that vast expanse beyond known borders. He began one
paragraph of his written instructions with the phrase "Should you
reach the Pacific Ocean . ... " followed in the first edition by the
editorial interpolation "one full line scratched out, indecipherable."
We have no way of knowing what Jefferson crossed out, what he
wished to articulate, or whether he thought better of the attempt; but
the lone phrase which he left is infinitely touching from a contem–
porary perspective.
Should you reach the Pacific Ocean.
. .
It is a
matter-of-fact admission of possibility, doubt, and hope, and it can
stand as an ageless expression of what is most truly American in this
diverse and complex culture in which we are all so deeply im–
plicated.
