WE (CHOSE) TO GO TO THE MOON.....

In watching President Obama’s final State of the Union address last night I heard yet another reference to the amazing symbolism that was our “landing a man on the moon, and returning him safely to the earth”. Virtually every Democrat or Republican in the last (almost 50 years) has fathered this moment...and mentioned this accomplishment by the United States as the preeminent demonstration of the ideals and determination of “Americanism”.

I remember just where I was...as a small child while watching my grandparents black and white T.V. on Oglesby ave. in Los Angeles. To this day I have never seen anything on such a grand scale that was so triumphant and mesmerizing. It almost seems like an impossible task if you were to try and achieve it now...in 2016. No other country ever came close to landing a man on the moon, or even landing a rocket on the moon...we did it...in 19 (freaking)69!!! Are you kidding me?

• “But why, some say, the moon...why choose this as our goal...and they may well ask...why climb the highest mountain?, why 35 years ago fly the Atlantic?...why does Rice play Texas?....we choose to go to the Moon...we choose to go to the moon in this decade ..not because it is easy...but because it is hard.”- JFK Rice University, September 12, 1962

It almost seems surreal...how could we have done this? Look at the moon next time you get a chance...and imagine walking on it. We don‘t even look up anymore. We are too busy looking down. When Kennedy made the proclamation before Congress that we as a Nation were going to land a man on the moon--the technology did not yet exist...not even close...scientists and engineers looked at each other and shook their heads and shrugged...this was poppycock....the man is out of his mind...but, somehow...we just settled into our positions and got down to doing the job at hand...perhaps operating on the embers and fumes that came from having beaten down the Nazi’s and the Japanese a brief 15 years earlier.

I don’t think people at this time know how perilous and outrageous this endeavor was for any time, to say nothing of 1969. I don’t think we had even invented Pop Tarts by 1969, ”Air Jordan’s”, the Apple Martini, cafe latte’s, or frozen Pizza. If we had failed..if we had crashed into the moon, or worse yet, blown up before we got off the ground....and lost men..or left men stranded on the moon...who knows how that might have changed the Cold War at the time. But, in a feat of pure magnificence, a stroke of unprecedented genius....Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed themselves and their spacecraft on the moon...and they walked on it.

It set my generation into a period of expectation and limitless potential...after all...after you have landed men on the moon...what do you do for an encore? Invent the internet? Hardly! It took us 40 years before we had a practical, electric car in the marketplace, this time to stay...(40 years!). For all these decades since we landed on the moon we have been completely dependent on fossil fuels. Doesn‘t that seem just a little suspicious? 50 years ago we went from flying airplanes to using rocket thrust to escape the earth’s atmosphere and navigate 240,000 miles to a specific point on the surface of the moon...discarding rocket boosters along the way..and separating from the command module only to reconnect for the return flight home.

But, if I were to say, my fellow citizens, that we shall send to the moon, 240,000 miles away from the control station in Houston, a giant rocket more than 300 feet tall, the length of this football field, made of new metal alloys, some of which have not yet been invented, capable of standing heat and stresses several times more than have ever been experienced, fitted together with a precision better than the finest watch, carrying all the equipment needed for propulsion, guidance, control, communications, food and survival, on an untried mission, to an unknown celestial body, and then return it safely to earth, re-entering the atmosphere at speeds of over 25,000 miles per hour, causing heat about half that of the temperature of the sun--almost as hot as it is here today--and do all this, and do it right, and do it first before this decade is out--then we must be bold. - JFK, Rice University 1962

We dropped a ladder down to the surface of the moon for God’s sake...and we walked around...and collected stuff...and put up the American flag....AND, we watched it and heard it live on Television. And we did it 6 more times...we even drove a car around on the moon, we probably chewed gum at the same time, we did it for humanity...but we also did it for America...and, we were so far on top of the world the rest of the world could barely see us with binoculars...every other country was groveling at the foot of our robe at that point in time...(but we squandered much of that moral authority and perceived omniscience away in Vietnam)

1969! We barely had color T.V.’s. Based on the awesome(ness) of this achievement...the literal other-worldliness of it....I would have expected, that by 2016 our world would be at a much higher plane technologically. We have made much better gaming systems, created more ”Apps”, social media, Uber, and ways of taking “selfies”, even with extension sticks. We all now have our own ”smart” phones...but we have dreadfully little to say...

So, what else can we point to that would suggest that we have taken a similarly “giant leap” for mankind since then? Imagine the difference between 1919 and 1969...and then the difference between 1969 and now. In 1919 most families were dependent on the horse and buggy to get around...it was not until the 20’s and 30’s that more and more Americans were able to buy automobiles. We went from horse and buggy to the moon in those 50 years. Since 1969 what can we point to that has been equally as transcendent? Reality TV?

I’m just asking.

In the last week we have lost two entertainment notables, David Bowie and Alan Richman both died (at the age of 69) due to cancer. Where is the President who will draw (that) line in the sand and treat Cancer like going to the moon. Where is the President who will declare war on misogyny, rape, and sexual violence against girls and women that is so insidious and widespread (1 in 4 women). The Clinton administration, quietly and without fanfare, virtually eliminated smoking, smoking related illnesses, and smoking deaths in this country due to a plan of public awareness and focus...it worked...and I think it is Clinton’s greatest achievement as President...what else comes close? More extensive background checks to buy guns?, Immigration reform? Are Americans really standing at the White House door with torches over these issues that affect a tiny, tiny, speck of our population? I’m not saying that they don’t deserve our attention....but that has been the sum total of the American domestic debate in the last few years....what will be next...french fries reform?, making sunblock mandatory? When did we stop thinking big?

Obama, in my view, has squandered way too much of his Presidency on ”needles and pins”. He is a tremendous talent, in my opinion, one of the most brilliant minds (and hearts) to ever serve as Commander in Chief...but, other than Universal Health Care...(which is a solid achievement), what will he have to show for the last 8 years?

If JFK had (just) set the the course (boldly) for our mission to the Moon...then even if he did nothing else but lock himself in the Oval office and play video games for his near 1000 days it would still have been a masterful and transcendent Presidency in my opinion. Think of all the innovation that this effort ignited...all of the scientific breakthroughs that came inadvertently from launching this incredible scheme into the heavens. That leadership, willingness to risk failure...while the whole world was watching....during a Cold War with the Soviet Union...took extensive guts... it might be what is missing from some Presidents...and some Americans these days.

Think of it...in 1968 going to see ”2001: A Space Odyssey”, an amazingly precocious movie for it’s time...for ANY time...and then, a year later...landing an American on the moon. We were at the Vortex ..back then.

If you watch the new Star Wars movie today...and compare it to Kubrick’s ”2001”, you would never imagine that we have come a half century. In many ways, “2001” seems like the more advanced and sophisticated project. It is much more substantial and cerebral and imaginative. Personally, if you put the 1980 “Empire Strikes Back” side by side with this years Star Wars movie I can’t tell the difference from a technological or cinematic standpoint. I don’t know what has happened in the 35 years (surely a lot) but I can’t measure it with (my) eyes.

JFK deserves a lot of credit, for being a maverick. Lincoln may get credit for freeing the slaves, but Kennedy freed our minds, he forced us to look at the stars...to leave our world..

and, P.S., I think the oil companies in American..the whole darn cartel....is responsible for part of this retardation in our advancement..and maybe even the pharmaceutical companies, though I am less willing to point that finger. And, we deserve blame for allowing the oil companies to create our country in their image over the last 100 years...at the expense of our health, and our further advancement....I have no doubt that if the oil companies had their way we would be dependent on fossils for the rest of our existence....being dependent on fossils? that is the irony of all ironies...no, the oil companies are the “Dark Star”, imo.

Food for thought...

“So it is not surprising that some would have us stay where we are a little longer to rest, to wait. But this country of the United States was not built by those who waited and rested and wished to look behind them.“ JFK, Rice University