Right something that has been on my mind since yesterday. George W. Bush’s speech about the loss of Columbia. I don’t know if he wrote it himself, if he did he gained a little bit of respect. I would like to have seen it in full because I have seen it called moving and emotional in many places but he looked almost bored and certainly uncaring in the clips I saw of the first moments. I have read the full text of it (here) and it started really well. It is a moving speech and indeed a rallying cause the language used is sad and mournful but at the same time determined and hopeful. I do intend to stream the entire thing in work tomorrow, as I really do hope that he did a good job of it. They deserved no less.

However towards the end of the speech it went all religious and it was for one thing quite a big change from the tone of the speech so far. Actually I think I’m going to stop there and even apologise. Reading the MeFi thread at the moment leads me to believe I should in fact watch the speech and then perhaps I shall revisit this.

I know I’ve said a lot about the subject and I suspect there will be more but I beg your indulgence for a couple of more lines.

“They believed in what they were doing.”
Bill Readdy. NASA

Buzz Aldrin captured it this morning. He tried to read a poem about astronauts on television. He read these words: “As they passed from us to glory, riding fire in the sky.” And tough old Buzz, steely-eyed rocket man and veteran of the moon, began to weep.
Peggy Noonan.
Wall Street Journal Editorial Page
Saturday, February 1, 2003 3:38 p.m. EST