There was little talk of war in America this past weekend.
Those focused on military action in Iraq turned their thoughts instead to the families of the seven crew members who lost their lives Saturday aboard the space shuttle Columbia.
Critics of the president set fault-finding aside as they bowed their heads with Bush in a moment of prayer.
Hawks and doves joined hands to grieve for a mission lost against the backdrop of a brilliant clear blue sky.
And for the millions of Americans who spent their weekend in front of a television screen, many were again reminded of the powerful yet cruel way in which a tragedy can bring this nation together.
For the first time since Sept. 11, men and women across the country took time to pay their respects and honor a group of individuals who shall live on as national heroes.
Yet as the debris from the crash settles and the tears of the people begin to dry, I ask myself the question of how my generation will remember this disaster 20, 30 - even 50 years - from now.
Unlike the Gen-Xers who grew up with the Challenger explosion as their most memorable tragedy, those of us in the Gen-Y age-group have greater sorrows we will forever hold on to - like 9/11.
For many of us, the events of that day quickly put an end to our innocence in addition to changing the way we now view the world.
But has Sept. 11 also changed the way in which we are affected by tragedies like the Columbia explosion? A small part of me fears so.
For as much as I mourned with my fellow countrymen and women on Saturday, feeling shocked by the footage of the explosion, a small part of me remained unmarred by the journey's sad end.
I know that, in making such a statement, it seems as if I may have been unable to feel sorrow at the loss of the seven talented crew members aboard the Columbia - a comment which simply wouldn't be true.
But what I mean when I say it, is that I have my doubts as to whether or not the Columbia mission will be remembered the same way the Challenger was 17 years before it.
Why? Perhaps because the Gen-Xers haunted by that tragedy remember (as children) the hero they had aboard the Challenger flight, public school teacher Christa McAuliffe.
Or perhaps it's the fact that the Challenger explosion - up until Saturday -was known as the greatest space disaster in all of NASA's history.
Sadly, in the 17 years that have passed since that fated mission, this country has experienced sorrow of a magnitude unknown to Americans in 1986.
Which makes me question whether or not - when my children ask me in the future about the great tragedies of my day - the space shuttle Columbia will be one of them.
Write to Gail at glkoch@bsu.edu
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