43 Years ago today, we created a symbol that anything was possible

[JHB]

Last edited Fri Jul 20, 2012, 01:54 PM - Edit history (1)

To insert a break into today's sad news and toxic politics



We used to build great things, achieve accomplishments that once had only been flights of fancy, and chose enduring words like "we came in peace for all mankind" rather than chest-thumping bravado.

And if you describe our economy and policies back then to today's Republicans, we were a bunch of "socialists".

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. "The government" did Apollo 11. I thought "government"

was useless and incompetent and should be drowned in a bathtub.

[SoutherDem]

6. Think of all the technology we gained.

Think of what the world has gained.

[RKP5637]

2. Yep, it used to be about what we can do, "together," now, it's about

what we can't do, and how to tear the other person/group down. The hatred in this country astounds me, we've become a bunch of slackers and in the big picture a bunch of fools. Yep, teaming and working together for a better world is seen by many today as evilness.

[earthside]

3. Well, that is sad, too.

In 2012 we (the USA) cannot put a woman or man into space on one of our own rockets.

And, we have people trying to destroy the post office an essential part of communication in our nation.

There are signs that are best days are over.

The moon landing may just have been the peak of US civilization and culture -- I remember it well and with great admiration for the people who built the space program.

[RKP5637]

8. Sometimes I get this uneasy feeling that the best times are an

exception and not the norm. The US continues to slide downward in rankings with other industrialized nations and I get this feeling we are not near the bottom.

It took the Great Depression to move American forward, it took Sputnik to shake America into moving ahead with the space program in a serious way. It seems great strides forward do not happen without some major event. I often wonder what the next major event might be.

[SoutherDem]

4. Sad that people don't remember that today 43 years ago humans walked on the moon

What has happened to "We came in peace for all mankind"?

[GObamaGO]

5. Great Post

Thank you for this!

[AsahinaKimi]

7. There was a time when people did things like

Send out CARE packages or joined the Peace Corps. Imagine what Republicans today would say about that?
This is NOT the America, I grew up in.

[RKP5637]

9. Same here, it's not remotely the America I grew up in and was proud of. Many

things were not perfect, but at least it felt like we were trying to move ahead, to be a caring nation, people seemed interested in "we are in this together." Today, the country is so alien to what it once was IMO.

[HiPointDem]

10. space exploration has been privatized too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_spaceflight

[HiPointDem]

17. "the United States, which currently has no means of independently reaching space"

http://www.krusekronicle.com/2012/05/private-spacecraft-docks-with-space-station.html

CNN) -- A private spacecraft docked with the International Space Station on Friday, a milestone in a new era of commercial space flight.

The docking happened just before 10 a.m., almost two hours later than planned. A radar system aboard the unmanned SpaceX Dragon that measures distance to the station had picked up a different part of the space station, meaning it could not dock properly, NASA said. ...

... The launch is an important step for NASA and the United States, which currently has no means of independently reaching space. NASA relies on the Russian space agency to ferry U.S. astronauts to orbit.

[HiPointDem]

19. defunding will do that. and the defunding has been the result of the transfer of national income

to the rich. with the result that the exploration and its fruits will be privatized.

[TeamPooka]

11. we did great things.

[edbermac]

12. Was about to post on this, I am watching a DVD on the landing.

A magnificent achievement, marred by Nixon interrupting them halfway through to congratulate them.

[madinmaryland]

13. One small step for man. One giant leap for mankind.

[madinmaryland]

16. I have attached a video clip of the event...

It is interesting to listen to Neil Armstrong's description of the lunar surface.