Kendrick Meek: “I join with my colleagues in honoring the brave men and women of the Space Shuttle Columbia, in celebrating their lives…”

“I join with my colleagues in honoring the brave men and women of the Space Shuttle Columbia, in celebrating their lives and marveling at their achievements; in mourning their passing and extending whatever solace and comfort we can to their families and loved ones. Space travel is important to our country, but it is particularly important to my State of Florida. All Floridians take pride in Cape Canaveral. Thousands of Floridians are part of the team that puts the shuttle together, loads up its space cargo and launches it into space. Everyone who has ever seen a shuttle launch goes away feeling differently; about our country, certainly, but also about the nature of human beings on this Earth. For we are a curious species. Our entire history, in countless tales that preceded Jason and the Argonauts, and in countless voyages that followed the voyage of Columbus, is a long, long saga of people trying to go places no one has ever been; seeing things no one has ever seen; and learning things that no one has ever known. And this is the type of people that the men and women of the Columbia were. As is so often the case in life, we have learned more about them after their deaths than we knew when they were living. But what we have learned is that they were truly remarkable people--people with dreams who worked hard, studied hard, exercised discipline, raised their families, served their communities and their country.…”