The Small Step For Man
As is appropriate, a lot is being made of the 50th anniversary of the man’s first landing on the moon. I was just a10-year-old tyke at the time, but I have some pretty clear memories of that night and watching that grainy black and white video feed of Neil Armstrong coming down that ladder and the hop down to the surface. It was an amazing time when we thought we could do anything.
Every year for over 50 years now the family has gone to White Lake, North Carolina for their summer vacation. It’s changed some over the years, but back at the time there was small U-shaped cluster of cabins, and some folks from Shelby and Kings Mountain would rent two or three of them for the same week. The week we went in 1969 corresponded with the moon landing.
I’d certainly watched the launch the week before as I did most all of them. I never thought about being an astronaut, but I’d decided I wanted to be an engineer working on the rockets. I subsequently learned how much complex math was involved in that particular field, and that ended those dreams. My sister is the math whiz.
I don’t remember if the cabins came with a TV or if we took one that year to watch, but I recall a 19 inch with rabbit ears, and if I had to guess, probably some tin foil on the end of the two antennae. We took it outside that night in front of one of the cabins on top of a couple of coolers, and everyone brought around their lawn chairs as we watched.
The landing on the moon was around 4 PM on Sunday afternoon and they finally climbed out around 11 PM. I think Armstrong put his feet on the moon at 10:56. Besides the excitement of what I was watching, I got to stay up late, and that just made it all the cooler. It was amazing, and CBS’s Charles Kuralt and Astronaut Wally Schirra were fantastic at explaining what was happening and how it happened. I think those were as excited as any of the rest of us. I know it was a night and adventure I’ll never forget.
Some thought it a waste of money. One person coined the term “moondoggle” to describe the effort. I think it was neither of those. New technologies and materials with earth-bound applications were created to support the effort. Our science and engineering efforts were challenged and stretched to their limits. And man’s desire to see beyond the horizon took us to a whole new horizon.
I think we thought a new day had dawned and that no challenge was too great for us. Around the world, people were jubilant that humans had left this blue marble and ventured to a new celestial body. We built computers we can fit in our pocket that have more computing power than any of those early rockets had on board. We built an internet that can connect nearly every person and place on the planet. We continue to pioneer medical treatments.
Sadly, we have somehow fallen so far recently. We are slowly making our planet uninhabitable, but people want to continue doing what causes the destruction of our eco-system. We have people who literally believe the earth is flat. Science and education, in general, are viewed with skepticism by many. Many believe that since they have theirs, no one else should get anything. We no longer think we are called to care for one another and talk about “takers.”
I hate to end this reflection on a down note, but it serves to show how far we’d come, yet how so every quickly, just 50 years later, we descend to a much darker place. We need to awake to this and stand up to those who think education isn’t worthwhile. We need to stand up to those who think people of different ethnicities are unworthy to share the planet with us. We need to stand up to those who insist on an ordained right to exploit the planet for their own gain. I hope this anniversary is time to think back on those heady days and remind us that we put men on a distant body in the heavens. If we put our collective minds and wills to it. we can solve the problems which face us.
