Remember that childlike delight you got the first time you saw the space shuttle fly? I do. I saw the shuttle take off for the first time in, gotta be 5-7 years, this am, and it was just as good as I remembered. The live camera looking down from the shuttle provided an incredible view.
The simple delight of a spaceship taking off has seemed to elude the hard left. Cannot seem to find any dems who have blogged about this subject, which is rather important. Hopefully, it will lead to manned missions to the moon, Mars, and beyond. Why? Why the hell not? Maybe just to say "hey! We did it." As the real JFK said "In a very real sense, it will not be one man going to the moon it will be an entire nation. For all of us must work to put him there."
Plus, cannot forget his more memorable speech:
There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet. Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation many never come again. But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?
We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.
Supper: 7/26/2005
Try one of these specials with your super: Naked Villainy remodels the castle. Chowz World says Bochco botched it. Dangerous Logic looks at PETA’s actions. Tish has a plan for the terrorists. FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog looks at the stuff with
The last time I watched a space shuttle launch it was the Challenger. I was working as a teacher’s aide in a 4th grade class and I watched, horrified as it blew apart.
Until now I couldn’t bring myself to watch the actual launch again. But this morning I got up just in time to see it lift off. I stood transfixed in front of the television. I watched the smaller rockets fall away and the large rocket disconnect. The view of the earth went from hazy blue sea, to distant haze, to the earth’s curve against black space. They were away. They’d made it. Eventually the camera returned to the commentator and I realized that I had been holding my breath and there were tears streaming down my face. They made it…for now.
And thanks for JFK’s quote. I like that one too.
I meant to blog something on it as well. I just couldn’t find words.
Imagine that — choosing to do something because it’s hard.