America in 1969 was in the throes of agony over Vietnam and in domestic turmoil. But for a single, unforgettable day we all stood in awe at the achievement of a brave advancing humanity.
It has struck many how the death of Walter Cronkite has coincided with the 40th anniversary of Mankind's landing on the Moon. In a sense, it is very fitting. For in their own way Cronkite's style of journalism and the Moon program are echoes of a bygone American optimism - a time when Americans still felt some of that post-WW2 faith in their ability to work together to achieve great things.
The photos and video today bring back vivid memories for me.
Those alive at the time will remember their subconscious exhalation of breath when the astronauts finally touched down. Today it seems like it was inevitable. But only a few short years before, an entire crew of American astronauts had burned up on the launch pad. The Soviets lost quite a few in their space program, stories that are just now becoming known. The airless void of space was cold, vast and unspeakably dangerous. It was an environment that no evolution could have prepared human mind and body for.
I remember standing beside people watching this on the street, all of us looking into the store windows where the television showed the grainy images. When it happened, we all just turned to each other with a similar look of wonder on our faces, a smile and shaking of heads. Some even shook hands, hippies and people in suits together.
Amid the spasms of Vietnam and the still very real sorrow over the assassinations of MLK and Bobby Kennedy, seeing the Moon Landing was like a dash of bracing air from another time.
The Moon Program was a Government program. We need to remind ourselves of this at a time when our political debate is so poisoned by anti-government sentiments - sentiments that, sadly, all too many Democrats concede to. To say the Moon Program was a Government program is to say that it represented the collective efforts, resources and will of the American people to achieve what many thought impossible.
In WW2, as American troops participated in the final rush towards Berlin to end the Nazi Empire, American soldiers, looking around them at the enormous resources and energy being focused on this goal, were heard to remark: "if only we could put this amount of effort into making our country better at home."
The anniversary of the Moon landing should remind us all of the great things we Americans working together collectively can accomplish if we put our minds to it.
I would enjoy hearing the thoughts of others, whether you were alive at the time or not, as to what the Moon Landing means to you.