Sunday, July 20, 2008

Today In History - There really Was A Man In The Moon

Well, at least there was a man on the moon. July 20, 1969 was the day that man landed on the moon (it was not until the 21st that he actually walked on the moon) by way of the moon landing of Apollo 11. Buzz Aldrin spoke the first words on the moon, but Neil Armstrong gave us a hint of how it should have remained out there in space, when he said: "Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed." No one knew to what he was referring because the name of the spacecraft, the lunar module, was Eagle 1. Tranquility Base was a name he had made up for the landing zone on the moon, what high hopes had he, and I guess so did the rest of us!

It was one of the most amazing achievements of our time, and a damn pity that space exploration did not go full tilt after that. Then again, we had and still have other things to worry about here at home on good old planet earth, like whose god is better than everyone else's god, who can send more bombs to whose backyard, how many rights we can give to homosexuals, starving worthless piss ants who will not work for their own well being, and oh yes Global Warming. Folks we could have been out there with a full fledged space exploration program ala Star Trek but we were just to busy screwing one another over to realize the great potential that is out among the stars. What a shame because that moon landing was absolutely amazing and held promise of wonderful things to come. Yet, here we are still stuck in the primordial ooze of men's minds, bickering,bitching, moaning and in general not knowing which way is up!

We should have followed the advice of Johnny Cash when he sang:

"I'll fly a starship across the universe divide, and when I reach the other side, I'll find a place to rest my spirit if I can..."

All the best,
Glenn B