40 Years Since the Eagle Landed

Yesterday morning, Buzz Aldrin was a guest on the Today Show. In a very candid interview, Mr. Aldrin spoke of the book that he has penned, speaking of his life since returning from the moon, aboard that Apollo capsule. His life has been quite different than you might expect of a former astronaut.

However, though the point of the interview was the book, the depression he suffered, and how he has coped, I could not help but concentrate on the very last part of the interview, where he spoke glowingly about the pride he felt, as a part of the dream of a nation.

In this day of recession, war, attacks by terrorists, a large portion of the populace questioning the way that our stock market works, and various other problems, I could not help but think that, since the problems we face are, in large part, ones of attitude, why not move in a positive direction, and lift the spirits of the nation again.

Why not go to Mars, as the former astronaut spoke about in the interview? It would get many of the workers laid off due to the end of the space shuttle program back to work. It would get suppliers of hardware and software used by NASA back to working at full speed and capacity. It would give us, as a nation, pride, something to concentrate upon, and something to be able to look forward to, other than the next terrorist event, or the unruliness of the little bozo running North Korea.

I don’t know about anyone else’s thoughts, but mine are that little has happened to us, as a nation, after the days of Apollo, that is good, outside of the election of President Obama. No matter your political leanings, you must admit that nothing forward looking has been accomplished by this nation since the days of President Kennedy. He put us one the path to the moon, and Richard Nixon took away any further vistas, such as Mars. Every president since has been, as far as taking the nation forward together into the future, too interested in business as usual.

For those with the naive view that moving into space does nothing for us on earth, they can Google for the results and watch the pages of hits fly by on the screens in front of them.

If not Mars, then back to the moon, at the very least. If people such as Octomom, and Jon & Kate + 8 are any indicator, we will need the room soon!

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