45 Years After the First Moon Landing

Nancy and I  have had two non-stop months, chronicled on FB. My blogging has dropped to its lowest in 4 years.

But, I am trying to take a few minutes this week-end to ponder, after 45 years of marriage, and 50 years out of h.s,  the ramifications of the first Moon landing 45 years ago tomorrow.

I was riveted to the t.v. screen July 20, 1969, just five months post wedding. I remember thinking that this was happening before we had our first child, and that all our children would grow up in a world of space exploration, adventure, and creativity for mankind. I wrote a naïve essay where I even opined we would eventually reach the stars and become near Godlike in our abilities and accomplishments.

Didn’t happen. A lack of will, courage, commitment, and imagination, caused the American people, and therefore the world, to lose the dream of moving off of this tiny, vulnerable, planet so we could fully achieve our potential.

I could not imagine in 1969 that any American government or President would preside over the virtual abandonment of our manned space program, and that our only way into space would be to hitch a ride with our arch rival. But it happened, on the watch of both of our sanctimonious political parties. Instead, we settled for “bridges to nowhere” and empty promises and platitudes. And, we, in our “wisdom” selected these guys to lead us.

It’s not like we did so in order to care for the poor, foster equality, or clean up our planet. We have done poorly in all of those endeavors.

We have lost the innumerable scientific and technical, achievements that a vibrant space program would have fostered, in medicine, genetics, computers, energy conservation, biology, ecology, etc.

By now, we should have a city-like space station, or several,  orbiting us, a colony on the moon, mining and manufacturing, and our first feet on Mars.

But, we do have Google Glass. In the long run, our information technology will be our bridge to space, perhaps not by Americans. Woe to the world if a country without our values and commitment to freedom leads us into that world.

We now have a world where most of its population has no personal recollection of a world dominated by Hitler, the Nazis, Stalin, and Communism.

We have at least one movement trying to take their places, radical religion in its many forms. Fear, hatred, and luddism, on the march.

More subtle, but potentially our  future dictator, is international capitalism and human greed.

Intelligent people everywhere should be very anxious, even afraid, of our uncertain future, our children’s and grandchildren’s.

Sadly, it appears our generation will not live to see even a good beginning to the future I envisioned in 1969.

This post was written by Burton Hunter