Moon landing - I was there (at Cape Kennedy)

By Michael Jones. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-jones/moon-shadows_b_239307.html

I watched the first moon landing forty years ago in a motel room with three other soldiers. We mocked Neil Armstrong's forced attempt at a memorable phrase, but were teary eyed and so proud at what America had done.

It seems that America no longer does things like that. That we don't produce presidents who have it within themselves to do the things presidents used to do routinely: double the size of the country with the Louisiana Purchase and send a team to map it; build a canal across the Isthmus of Panama when others had failed; build major bridges and dams; carve out an enormous national park system; create an interstate highway system and change America forever; and declare that America was going to put a man on the moon within a decade.

And, do it.

Now America and its presidents promise to fully fund social programs, or peel the onion of ever more slender permutations of interest group 'rights', or pander to the panderable with more and more 'programs' that, in their pandering self interest, make charlatans of us all.

There is a no more wonderful or more depressing anniversary than that of the first landing on the moon. Would anyone of that era guessed that that was it? That we would go from using our inspired technology and culture of audacity to go the moon and then stop? From the Apollo program to a modified Greyhound Bus system like the space shuttle?

I watched the second moon landing in a bar in Athens, Greece. The Greeks went wild and bought all us drinks as they pounded our backs in excitement and shouted Amereeeeca, Amereeeeca.

It's as if we are Egyptians in the Middle Ages, wondering how the pyramids were built and by whom? Sure, there were many then and more now, that argued that NASA and space exploration is a waste of money and money was/is needed, then and now, for schools, for infrastructure improvements, big city problems, and for the poor. But, that argument was rejected by a Democratic President, John Kennedy, knowing that money alone can't solve those problems. He stood up in front of the world and, in one speech, with one vision, galvanized the globe by announcing what America would do, not could do. In one moment, the young, and old; black, white and brown, man and woman, rich and poor, thought: We're going to the moon.

Can you think of anything since, other than the immediate aftermath of 9/11, that created such a common purpose?

We have regressed as a country to the United States of Me, with presidents caught up in a series of moments, rather than leading America with a vision for a successful future. We no longer have Presidents leading with an audacity of purpose and determination, but with focus group think and an eye on reelection the evening of their inaugurations.

In the cheap motel room, drinking cold Army 3.2% beer, listening to the quiet competence of American engineers and the first human beings on the moon making history, we would have taken any bet that Mars was next, and soon.

So forty years on Mars isn't even mentioned as a goal, Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn are still, just gods, and the continuous, manufactured crises of the day are used with great skill to relieve you of your money, keep voters confused and not voting, and all of us divided and seeming helpless as events overtake our dreams.

But, even stuck in this gutter of diminished possibility, some of us are still reaching for the stars.

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(Editor's note: I was working at Cape Kennedy 40 years ago at the time of the launch of Apollo 11. The morning of the lauch over 1 million people crammed into the Cocoa Beach area to try and view liftoff. I was fortunate to have a pass that got me as close as 1.5 miles from the launch pad. At 3 am (to beat the traffic) I made my way to the last security point before the launch pad. The security guards told me to wait as the astronauts were coming through in 10 minutes time. So I was the last civilian to see these brave men before they climbed aboard the rocket. From my vantage point in front of the world's press and TV cameras, I witnessed the most amazing sight - arguably the most important event of the 20th century. I filmed the launch with my Super 8 cine camera as the earth shook beneath us, setting up standing waves in the lagoon in front of the launch pad. The lift off seemed agonisingly slow and all the hardened press corps urged Apollo upwards "Go! Go!". We could see the first stage separation with our naked eyes and the plume of exhaust smoke arched gracefully in the bright Florida sunshine. The smoke trail remained for half an hour or more before the upper air winds dispersed it. We were all overwhelmed. We partied through the night, watching Neil Armstrong's first step on the moon on a small black and white TV receiver. I was there!

Ray (XpatAthens.com))