Mrs. Cook worked with my mother at the Jamestown Sun newspaper. It was during the 1950s, and Jamestown was a small town in the middle of North Dakota. My mother said she lost a good deal of her eyesight while proofreading. She wrote at least one story for the paper - a Christmas serial about a greedy little boy who always whined, "Gimme."
My memory fails me trying to place Mrs. Cook in the office, but I do remember she was old. We visited her house at least once, and I fell in love with this Civil War sword she had.
There was one other thing about Mrs. Cook that chiseled a permanent groove in my memory - her habit of saying "Just as I thought." It was her classic answer to a hundred different situations, but no one believed her, especially my mother. The phrase became so annoying, my mother turned it into a joke.
We now jump ahead about 50 years, to September of 2001. To save a little bit of money, I canceled my subscription to the local newspaper. I just knew "something" would happen of significance if I was without my paper, but I had stopped collecting headlines years earlier. "Don't be so superstitious," I told myself. The world changed September 11th.
Several months went by, and when the newspaper offered a special rate for a four month subscription, I signed up. After four months, the special offered expired, and once again I determined to cancel. It was February 1, 2003.
This time, not only did I think a major news story was going to break the same day I stopped my newspaper, I actually had a premonition it was going to be the end of the space shuttle then in orbit.
Please, don't get me wrong, there is no way this should be twisted so that I think I "caused" either 9-11 or the Columbia disaster - far from it. It is just a weird couple of cases of serendipty - coincidence.
Psychic? Probably not. One of many premonitions throughout my life? Definately.
Interesting.
President Gerge W. Bush
The White House
Thank you very much for the kind words you spoke after the Columbia shuttle disaster. Your reference to God calling the stars - and astronauts - by name, touched me. It surely must have moved the families of those who were lost. I totally agree with the statement of someone in church the next day, "I love President Bush."
With all due respect to those who have fallen, I ask you to seriously consider if our continued presence in space is worth the human sacrifice.
If we look at the speed with which the United States went from concept to reality for landing on the moon, we have to wonder why we aren't already on Mars. It took less than a decade to fulfill President Kennedy's dream, but what have we accomplished since? Some have said we owe many inventions like Teflon and cell phones to the space program. I, for one, would gladly give up both innovations to bring back the 17 lives of those lost in Apollo 1, Challenger, and Columbia.
Sir, what do we really have to show for all those trillions of dollars thrown into space? As a former federal worker, I know how we used to scurry around at the end of each fiscal year making sure we expanded our programs to justify our budgets. Isn't that really what NASA has been doing, lo these many decades?
Wouldn't those trillions have been better spent researching what really is our last frontier on earth - the vast resources of the oceans? Surely we would have found an answer to drought, the need for minerals, and even more food. If even a fraction of the space budget had been given over to disease research, it might be possible that a cure for cancer and even AIDS would be historical by now.
Personally, I have never thought man was meant to inhabit other planets. I think back on the Tower of Babel, and place the same restrictions on the space program - God doesn't want us expanding our reach too far. There HAS to be life on other planets, and there is no way He wants us interfering with each other.
Again, I highly respect and support all you are doing. I feel compassion and grief for the families who have suffered a loss. However, this is a program you inherited. That does not mean it is a program you have to pass along.
Thanks for listening.