Monday, July 20, 2009

Apollo 11 moon landing + 40 years = 0

If you've been living under a rock, you may be oblivious to the fact that 40 years ago today, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the moon.

Apollo 11 was a defining, iconic a moment in human history, and true the the hearts of pessimists everywhere, it marked the beginning of the end of American global leadership. It didn't take long for jowly Dick Nixon to disassemble all that had been so painstakingly assembled over the previous decade, for the beancounters to take over the job of inspiring the nation, and for dreams to take a back seat to visionless reality.

I know I'm too young to be a curmudgeon, but that didn't stop me from exploring the topic in my latest Wide Angle Zoom column for Betanews, We won't get 'mooned' again, or, why space still matters. I hope you enjoy the read and share a thought or two.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey, you kids! Get offa my lawn!

invisible said...

I remember it well. We were cruising the galaxy and looking for grazxobliks, when we saw a primitive rocket coming from your planet.
" Looks like the earthlings have space flight capabilities" Said my companion, Vrotar. " Yep, I replied. No good can come of this."
When they weren't looking, we wrote " earth or bust" on the side of the ship