Posted on 08/28/2012 6:20:39 AM PDT by shortstop
As long as mankind is a species of sentience and technology, as long as history is kept and read, the name of Neil A. Armstrong will be known.
It will be Columbus and Magellan and Armstrong, each leapfrogging the other in the innate human impulse to explore, remembered as long as man remembers.
Whether man walked out of Africa or was kicked out of Eden, he went where he’d never been, and his descendants did the same until the earth was peopled and the heavens were challenged.
Some walked across the Bering Strait, others rowed through the nothingness of the south Pacific, or hiked over mountains and swamps and deserts. We conquered this earth and Neil A. Armstrong was the first to conquer beyond.
And history will wonder at the way we ignored his passing.
When the names Romney and Obama have moldered into meaninglessness, school children will still learn the name of Armstrong and be inspired by what he did. His will be one of the greatest names of our era, one of the greatest men to ever live.
This man should have a state funeral.
This man should lie in state in the Capitol.
This man should have been afforded something other than the slightest of half-staff honors.
Yesterday, the president ordered the America flags at federal properties to be flown at half- staff on Friday, the day Neil A. Armstrong is buried.
That seems like a nice gesture, but it is such a slight gesture as to be insulting.
When Obama himself dies, for example, the flag will be lowered for 30 days. The Chief Justice of the United States, or the Speaker of the House, would get 10 days, and if a member of the president’s cabinet were to die, the period of respect would be from the day of their death until the day of their burial.
If a member of Congress dies, the flags are lowered the day they die and the day that follows.
And the first man to walk on the moon gets half that.
It is an honor, but not really.
And it is emblematic of the disrespect being shown this hero in his death. He chose to live humbly, we have chosen to bury him ignobly.
Part of it could be that the one time he spoke up in criticism of a federal policy in all the years since he walked on the moon was just recently, when he harshly criticized the current president for essentially ending America’s manned space flight program.
Obama gets his revenge, but history will have the last say.
And history will understand what we cannot.
Six hundred million people around the world watched this man climb down a ladder on black-and-white television because they understood the significance of what he was doing. They knew they were witnessing history, and they wanted to be a part of it.
Today, we want no part of it.
We have lost the spine and the stones necessary to go new places, to solve hard problems and reach great heights. We are more concerned about not interrupting the welfare cheese than we are about being men and truly exploring.
We have been castrated by a new way of thinking and doing. Neil A. Armstrong rode a rocket of American might, but today’s NASA has specifically denounced any more all-American flights.
It would be arrogant for America to go to Mars or the Moon alone, NASA has said, so we would only go as part of a coalition.
Neil A. Armstrong’s coalition was him and Buzz and an army of crew-cut engineers.
While today’s space exploration consists of landing our seventh rover on the surface of Mars, and politely ignoring the fact that the Spanish weather equipment doesn’t work, the exploration of Armstrong’s era involved creating whole new technologies to go to a whole new place.
Perhaps we have ignored the passing of Neil A. Armstrong because we cannot live up to the legacy of Neil A. Armstrong. Perhaps looking back at him and his era makes us look weak and useless by comparison.
You don’t know how puny you are until you stand next to a giant, and Neil A. Armstrong was a giant. For what he did, and for what he represented.
And now he is gone.
And perhaps he took our soul with him.
Perhaps it’s been downhill since 1969.
He will inspire future generations, but mostly he is shaming ours.
By reminding us of who we used to be.
I happen to work at a DOD facility very near Cape Canaveral. I sent a note to the HR manager suggesting the flag be at half mast for Mr. Armstrong. She replied that “President Obama said that our flag should be at half mast this coming Friday.” Exact words. I am not kidding.
And we’re virtually in the shadow of launch pad 39 A. I’m not sure what I’m going to do about it yet.
The choice isn’t which research budgets.
The choice is cutting entitlements, then taking that money and pour it into a job creating mega project such as the Moon Shot and Star Wars.
These projects produced a booming economy as well as a slew of research funding and a boon to technology unmatched in the history of mankind.
Met Shepard three separate times. Great guy. Have a picture on my wall of he and I shaking hands.
Since iwrote the message you responded to the HR lady replied that “yes, it is for one day only per the president.” Shameful. I think they had it at half mast for a week for Sally Ride.
I’m not saying any more to them. I’m new at this biz because I got laid off somewhere else after 33 years of exemplary service...so they could keep more minorities and women. They made no secret of it.
Happy FReeping!
Energy: unlimited solar power, exotic helium isotopes for future fusion reactors.
Materials: metals are abundant everywhere in the solar system. Metal is getting more and more expensive to mine and recycle here. There will come a tipping point when it is cheaper to get it from the moon or asteroids.
Room. We are going to need it. There's a spare planet next door named Mars that could be tweaked to make a second earth. It already has water. So does the moon.
Like I said, this is only important if we intend to keep developing new technology, making more people and expanding our horizons. If we are going to go back to hunting and gathering in small bands it isn't necessary. And that is the only other choice. We can't live like we live now forever. Our choices are up or down.
And you have no vision.
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