AD ASTRA PER ASPERA
A ROUGH ROAD LEADS TO THE STARS
(from a plaque at Launch Complex 34)
Today marks the 20th anniversay of the space shuttle Challenger disaster, where seven brave men and women lost thier lives in the pursuit of our dreams.
While this diary is posted in thier honor, it isn't really about them. It's about the hopes and dreams of a little boy in 1969.
And it's a little bit about all the folks here at dKos.
It was July, 1969. I was just a boy at the time, more interested in things like baseball and bicycles than world events. Still, the images of the world were there for me to see every night as our family watched the evening news. I remember the horrrible images of Vietnam being broadcast from halfway around the world. I remember the pictures of the war protesters, the police, the national guard. I remember talk of the cold war, the Russians, the atomic bomb. I remember images of hate, violence, and rascism from right here in our own country. I remember, just a year earlier, my mother crying when she heard Robert Kennedy had been shot. And I remember her tearfully telling me how she had cried before when his brother, the President, had been killed in Dallas.
And even though I was just a boy, I remember being fearful of the future. The world seemed to me to be a very scary place.
And then came July 20th. It was Sunday afternoon. Our family was huddled around the TV, watching the coverage of Apollo 11. We sat in awe as Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the moon. But what I remember most was the feeling that I was part of something bigger. That the whole world, just like our family, was huddled around thier TV sets as well, watching these historic events unfold. For that one brief moment we had all come together, Americans and Russians, black and white, young and old. Our differences were forgotten, if just for a moment, and we all became humans, citizens of Earth.
The crew of Apollo 11 left a plaque on the moon's surface. It read;
HERE MEN FROM THE PLANET EARTH FIRST SET FOOT UPON THE MOON
JULY 1969 AD
WE CAME IN PEACE FOR ALL MANKIND
And then it was all over, the world went on about its business. Vietnam didn't go away. The Russians were still a threat. Hate, violence, and fear still filled our living room as we watched the evening news.
But the thing is, and here's the rub, I was different. I felt there was hope. I felt that we could do anything if we just set our mind to it. I felt that if we just came together, we could change the world. And from then on, as I lay my head on my pillow at night, the world seemed a little less scary.
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So it is now today, Jan 28, 2006. And the world is once again a very scary place indeed. I watch TV and read in the papers about the sad state our world is in. And here in the dKos community I read and participate in discussions of how bad things really are.
But there is something else I find here on dKos. Hope. Amidst all the stories about hate and fear and violence in the world, I sense an underlying hope. A dream that, if we can all just come together, we can change the world. A dream that we can make the world a better place. And as I read through the diaries here, I get a little taste of that feeling I had back in the summer of 1969.
So I just want to say thanks to everyone here on dKos. When I lay my head on my pillow tonight, the world will be just a little less scary.
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IN REMEMBRANCE OF
Rick D. Husband, William C. McCool, Laurel S. Clark, Michael P. Anderson, David Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Ilan Ramon
Columbia STS-106, February 1, 2003
Francis R. Scobee, Michael J. Smith, Judith A. Resnik, Ronald E. McNair, Ellison S. Onizuka, Gregory B. Jarvis, Christa McAuliffe
Challenger STS-51L, January 28, 1986
Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Edward H. White, Roger B. Chaffee
Apollo 1, January 27, 1967