THE MOON, IN SPITE OF ALL
As published on “The Policy Think Site'' <www.jaygaskill.com> and the “Human Conspiracy Blog”, Copyright 2009 by Jay B Gaskill, Attorney at Law. Contact the author at <law@jaygaskill.com>
THE MOON – IN SPITE OF ALL CONTRARY FORCES...
It was this day, a Sunday, July 20,1969, at 4:17 PM Eastern, 1:17 Pacific.
The first human being (the legendary Neil Armstrong) stood on another world. He had descended an aluminum ladder in a vacuum at 1/6th earth's gravity, wearing an inflated suit that weighed about 180 pounds and lightly bounced down on a celestial body that humans from Aristotle to Asimov had seen only as a glimmering object in the sky, a planetoid beyond all weather, accessible only in myth.
Half a billion people watched the landing on television. About the same time, Astronaut Buzz Aldrin took communion in the landing module; this was done in complete secrecy because anti-religious forces had intimidated the Nixon Administration and NASA.
That same day, CBS news legend Walter Cronkite appeared with science fiction legend Robert Heinlein, whose space travel stories had inspired young pilots to become astronauts. In the course of that discussion, Heinlein made a profound point that has since gone almost unnoticed: Future human societies will use that epochal first moon landing as Year One in a post earthbound calendar.
Heinlein and Cronkite were authentically enthusiastic about this accomplishment and its larger significance. The prosaic and distracted Richard Nixon was not.
The technologically advanced societies of the world have endured much and accomplished much since 1969 but the Apollo program was allowed to die a bureaucratic death. Bold exploration, once one of the most important of all human endeavors, has been allowed to recede into the realm of cinema and athletic contests. Heroic accomplishment is in disfavor among the politically correct, unless it represents altruistic sacrifice for the less fortunate, or the hobby of celebrities.
Heinlein was not religious, but he understood the ultimate value of heroism to the human enterprise. Both he and Buzz Aldrin were on track. Human achievement is driven by heroes and is often sustained by religious faith.
The year 1969 WAS Year One. The human destiny, the one path that includes human survival far, far into the future, is not confined to the third planet of a single solar system.
We humans do not live for the mundane alone. We are sustained in the long term by the Greater Things. Take away our great dreams and we whither. But honor the DREAMS and rejoice the heroes who risk great things, and we will thrive....
JBG
