What cannot be bought
COMMENTARY
Jacque Petersell

I turned on my radio Monday morning and soon after turned it back off. What I heard made me sick.

Worse. What I heard made me dislike the way we live and work.

It made me hate the American way.

I was in the shower at 8 a.m. Saturday. I didn’t hear a noise. I didn’t feel a shake. My first news of the Columbia explosion came when I got to work an hour later (and the fact that it took an hour to find out makes me a little upset at local radio stations).

My next reaction was to find out all I could. I’m a journalist. It’s my nature.

And today I thank God that is my nature. I thank God that I didn’t try to turn this tragedy into a money-making mission like many Americans have.

Did you catch that? I said Americans, as in, the American way. Let’s see how much money we can make off of a tragedy. Let’s see who we can sucker into another sale.

What I heard Monday morning on the radio was a message from eBay that said any auction selling a piece of the Columbia would be quickly removed. One announcer said a bid had reached as high as $2 million.

It isn’t just the sellers at fault here. (Though, if they didn’t pick up the piece, there would be nothing to sell.) The buyers are at fault as well.

How could people even think of such a thing? Two million dollars for seven deaths and a national tragedy. Here, this piece has a little blood on it; that means it’s autographed. Sell it for a little more.

It doesn’t end with people selling bits of the Columbia. While Friday a Columbia hat was just a hat, it’s now a remembrance to a national tragedy, only worn twice, and can be yours for $25.99.

Let’s forget for a second about all the warnings NASA put out about how pieces of the shuttle could have toxic gasses still on it. Let’s not think about the fact that these pieces need to be used as part of the investigation to find out what caused the explosion.

And let’s not even think about the fact that seven people died serving the United States and the people of the world. They were doing what they loved; they got to touch a piece of the sky. And tragically, it was in this same sky that they died.

Let’s just try and make a quick buck off it.

We’re Americans. We’re suckers for tragedy. You put tears and pain with it, and we’ll lap it up.

It’s the American way.

I applaud those who have congregated in southeast Texas to help look for debris and remains that hit the earth. I applaud those who turned in the pieces of the Columbia instead of selling them to the highest bidder.

Because now comes the hard part. Now investigators must piece together an impossible puzzle to find the cause of this disaster. Now we must find a way to move on and to heal.

And I can guarantee that you can’t get that for $25.99 off eBay.

Editor in Chief Jacque Petersell is a senior news-editorial journalism major from Houston. She can be reached at (j.s.petersell@tcu.edu).