Miami Hurricane, November 17, 1981

              You re Invited To A Wedding!
full details on page 9
Volume 58, Na,23
Tuesday, November 17, 1981
Phone 284-4401
Miami Hurru inu'ii fi ARI fS F I 4 VIV
Spare Shuttle ( olunihia Took Off In \ Daz/.lina Display Of Kire \ml Smoke
Space "Shot’ Wasn’t Easy
By CHARLES E. I.AVIN
Cops tdiw
It has been my unfortunate experience while working for the Hurricane that covering a "big" event out of campus can be pretty frustrating. Covering the launch of the Columbia would be no different .	. or so l
thought.
Many people have told me on more than one occasion that 1 am crazy When I walked into the office two weeks ago looking for someone to accompany me to the launch. 1 again was told what I already knew. The only good place to see the launch up there would be from inside Kennedy Space Center, I was told. There was no way I would get up there, let alone get into the compound. I was better off watching the launch on TV
But I didn't want to watch the launch on TV. 1 wanted to be there. I wanted to see and hear it. I wanted to shoot it for my photo collection. So 1 continued my search The only ones allowed into the compound other than employees of the Center were press representatives, 1 learned I work for the Hurricane — that should qualify me. Furthermore, the story was approved for the news section. Now all I needed was permission to get into the compound
Here is where I thought 1 would come to a dead end I called Kennedy Space Center, and after being tossed around from department to department, I was told that I would have had to notify them ages in advance and the only way to get in was to get clearance from Washington Wow. Washington Five minutes later I was asking the DC operator for the NASA phone number NASA referred me to another number in Kennedy Center, and after calling them and getting some minor paperwork done, we were cleared for the launch
And so the trek began
At 11:00 p.m. on the eve of the Nov 1, George Haj. the official "reporter" on the story, and I took off on a four-and-a-half hour trip that would get us lost a few times and would send us hunting for an open service station al t a m with the gas gauge needle way past 1-After that we were to spend another thirty minutes driving around the Cape in order to enter through Gate 2. where we would be officially given our press badges and given free run of the complex Well, almost We were yet to be stopped at various checkpoints and turned back, but we finally made it to the press site.
There, at four in the morning, were reporters running around, helicopters taking off and landing faster than planes do at O'Hare, network biggies getting propped up for broadcast, and dozens of photographers setting up complicated equipment. In the far background stood the Columbia on its pad, lit from all directions. waiting And in the middle of it all, the countdown clock, ticking away, without stopping. Without stopping then.
The sun rose and tried to peek through the cloud cover which was beginning to worry everyone. Thousands of lumens were produced by the network studios as they all went on the air. Reporters typed madly on their portable VDT's Photographers checked their equipment for the upleenth time. 1 checked my equipment for the upteenth time. The clock counted away . . . less than five minutes , less than one minute . . Thousands of eyes were frozen on the far image of the orbiter, not unlike all those eyes frozen every afternoon on the TV set in the Union come 2 p.m.. And the clock counted away 5l) seconds 40 seconds . . HI seconds .31 seconds
The only good picture I shot that morning was the, one of the clock After all attempts to launch that monster failed I began to wonder whether the phone calls, the running around, the 30 hours without sleep had been worth it But when 1 got back to the office I knew I had to go up again And again I was told that I was out of my mind Well, everyone's entitled to his opinion
The eve of he 12th should not have been nearly as hectic. After all. we were already cleared for the launch, we knew how to get there, and we knew where to fill up to avoid another near catastrophe. But reports from NASA were no help in keeping things calm and organized There were talks about further delaying the launch. All afternoon we waited. Finally ai 10 p.m. we were told thai the lauch would, NASA
See page 2/LALNCH
Launch Something To Lose
By SCOTT E. RIXFORD
Wu\s Writer
Dateline: 2300 hours, 11 November 1981
Hurricane writer/technical person/keeper of the brain Charles Lavin called me at my home as I was trying to crawl out of a Maytag washer.
"NASA has cleared the way for two Hurricane writers to be part of the news media present at tomorrow's shuttle liftoff. Do you want to go?"
"Why sure." I said I as I picked lint out of my ravel. "What time do you wish to leave?"
“How about twenty minutes?"
reduce this person to nothingness I grabbed my camera, my pen and my notebook, and set out for a media experience.
• • • •
As cynical as I may have felt that morning — I was cajjable of stealing a cauldron of money from a Salvation Army volunteer — the remainder of the day would prove to be one of the most exciting days of my life.
After tipping my hat to such celebrities as David Hartman, Dan Rather, and the writer for a publication in Cat’s Creek, Oregon, I planted my flag in a piece of earth along the banks of the cape and began to set up
my camera It didn't take long to set up a Kodak I 10 lnstamatic
1 observed. The huge vehicle assembly plant with its many-storied doors was more than just a building. It was America. On one side was the American flag, on the other the bicentennial star. I felt a stirring within me. I ignored it. It continued. My stomach moved, my senses magnified More Pringles, I decided
Ten minutes before liftoff, the last hold passed with no complications. Everyone was counting down the seconds Many were pessimistic, mainly those who had
See page 2/PRINGl.ES
At one o'clock in the morning, I found myself drinking black coffee, eating Pringles, and riding on my way to Cape Canaveral. It certainly isn't common for a freshman entertainment writer to be invited to cover such a mission during his first semester for the newspaper My mind felt exhilarated, my body dead I would have to have been insane not to go.
It seemed I had been driving all night. 1 read the highway sign: Palm Beach. 20 miles I broke down and sobbed. The man in the white suit with the butterfly net was sitting on my shoulder. Mr Lavin was copping Z’s, and I was desperately in need of No-Doz. 1 had P-ingles caught between my teeth and coffee stains on my shirt. I had learned to hate small cars.
• • • •
After five hours of flying past the bubble gum boys, we arrived at Cape Canaveral. Lavin was still sleeping 1 had bricks in my eyes and a contract with Crayola to produce a new shade of red. After I received my pass, we continued through the many security gates and arrived at the press booth The time was 0600 hours, 12 November 1981.
* * • •
What happened between 0600 hours and 0900 hours I II never know I slept The honorable Charles Lavin woke me up with his words of wisdom:
"If you don't get up, Rixford. you'll miss everything. You can't sleep the day away."
1 wished I had a rifle, a chair, a bomb. Anything to
Probes Anti-Semitism
Reverend
By MARIA E. SALAZAR
News Writer
"We Christians believe Jesus Christ is our savior, but this savior put a burden on us. We don't want those burdens, but we can't blame our own faith. We have to blame someone else.
"Since Jesus was a Jew. we blame the Jews.’’
He may not think that analysis is morally right, but that's how Reverend Edward H. Flannery, author of The Anguish of the Jews: Twenty-Three Centuries Of Anti-Semitism. sees anti-Semitism among Christians.
Flannery, director of the office of Continuing Education of the Clergy, Diocese of Providence. Rhode Island, explained that view in a lecture about anti-Semitism al
the UM Law School Auditorium last Tuesday
This lecture is the beginning of a lecture series sponsored by the UM Judaic Studies Program for 1981-82. According to Dr. Helen Fagin, director of the program, the series has been made possible through a $12,000 grant from the Greater Miami Jewish Federation.
Addressing his lecture to a mainly Jewish audience, Flannery, a former executive secretary of the Secretariat for Catholic-Jewlsh Relations of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, explained what he believes are the main reasons for the Jewish-Catholic separation.
First, he said. Jewish people rejected to carry on a dialogue with Christians, among many other reasons, for suspicion
"Jews have always believed that
there is something hidden in the |Christian | agenda "
Also, he said. Jews think the idea of trying to convert them is always present in these talks
On the other hand, he explained. Christians also did not want to conduct a dialogue with Jews be cause of “indifference " This indif ference, he said, Is because of ignorance.
The dialogue started after the Holocaust, Flannery said. It was "probably because Christians felt guilty and became more Christian in the real way ."
The ignorance suffered by Christians about Jews, said FTannery, is because Christians don't read their own Bible “The Jews are mentioned in the first book of the Bible, Genesis.
See page 3/LECTURE
Miami Hurrii anc/STU ft A YIR
Larry Brodsky's three-yard touchdown catch put the Hurricanes up 14-0 in the first quarter of Saturday's Peach Bowl rematch against Virginia Tech. Miami held on to win, 21-14. The 'Canes, now 7-2 on the year, are closing m on the Top Ten. For a detailed account of the game, see SPORTS, page 1 1.
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