One small step (back) for man
Friday was the 43rd anniversary of the day Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped out onto the moon, and forever changed the course of human history … or so we thought.
No one really cares to remember these days. The things that united us are seen as political eyesores, and the bean counters’ worsts nightmare. Let us not forget the legendary statement about Apollo 8, where we were said to have discovered the moon, but had really discovered the Earth. We saw, for the first time, our own fragility, isolation and the need for international cooperation.
But those days are long gone. Forty-three years is a long time, and a lot can happen. In fact, 43 years before Apollo 11’s landing, we witnessed the first coast-to-coast, nonstop flight (from New York to California) by Oakley G. Kelly and John Arthur Macready. They were said to have achieved the impossible. The same was said about the Apollo astronauts and NASA.
In an age where one can grab a flight from Toronto to Beijing any day of the week, people still can barely muster the ability to get back to a place that, by today’s technologies, would be nearly effortless compared to the sacrifices and trials back in the 1960s.
This really is a political problem, not a technological one. Over 40 years since we achieved this momentous feat, our politicians have stolen our future and betrayed our entire species.
Aaron Blanche, Ottawa.