Howdy, Mike :) I timed my leave from Vietnam to c...

2009-07-22T05:29:55.612-07:00

Howdy, Mike :)

I timed my leave from Vietnam to coincide with the Moon landing. By that time I had figured out that war is a mistake, that it brings out the worst in people. I wanted to see Our Country achieve something that brings out the best in people.

This was the most important event in the history of planet Earth. Everybody knew it, too. The networks responded by overcoverage, yes that was possible. The technicians & such were really busy, they were kind of fidgeting to get back to the job during the interviews. So the networks, knowing the importance of the event, decided to interview important people. And the important people knew this was more important than they were.

"If we can go to the Moon, why can't we do (your favorite social program)?" I'll admit I had an incorrect reaction to that, I could see these people were promoting their agendas and viewed this statement as a logical fallacy, a comparison between apples and oranges.

Though I couldn't make it to Florida I somehow felt a solidarity with the million people who lined the beaches to watch the show. Beneath the sound of the rocket you could hear the great cheer as the multitude urged the beast on.

TV has an advantage, though. We could see into the capsule! They got into orbit, checked everything out, then fired the engine up to leave for the Moon. When the now-silent rocket had finished, they turned the capsule to look back at Earth. At that point, a highly significant event occurred which is rarely recounted in people's descriptions, yet was of great significance to the future of the Space program.

"Houston, there is a cyclonic storm south of East Pakistan".

There it was on the screen. A warpage in the fabric of existence, ominous and silent.

"Could you give us a location on that?"

"We'll need to get the telescope with the reticle on it."

The eye of the storm gazed steadily as you could hear the astronauts rummaging around in the background. The hypnotic stare continued as they read numbers back and forth to each other, punctuated by seemingly long periods of silence.

"OK, we got it" and the astronaut read the coordinates off to the ground crew.

Then there was another long silence.

"Who are we going to report this to?"

"I don't know, maybe the State Department, I guess..."

Somebody at the network's monitor finally snapped and broke the hypnotic eye's steady stare. They had a camera in East Pakistan! There weren't very many TV sets in the impoverished country and a huge crowd had gathered around one of them. They looked sober and silent and very, very concerned.

My uncle Pat didn't like the show. He kept saying, "In a thousand years, nobody will remember this" and "It's so unimportant in the overall scheme of things..." I really resented that. Here I was, seeing Our Country doing something good and he was denigrating it. This continued even as the astronaut was carefully climbing down the ladder.

I was about to slug him when my grandma yelled, "PAT, SHUT YOUR !@&~~& MOUTH!!".

I think sniping at the Moon program was a product of jealousy. Uncle Pat I think felt his religion was being overshadowed by the significance of the event. The agenda of the apples-and-oranges guy was being submerged, but it was only for briefly. The astronauts landed, I went back to Vietnam, and life moved on. The apples-and-oranges guy actually achieved his impossible goal thirty nine years later as his people reached their ultimate pinnacle.

"I have a dream..."

We all have dreams. If you see somebody achieve his impossible dreams, don't get jealous, get even! Your dreams are important too. Nobody else's stunning acheivement should make you feel insignificant, instead it should inspire you to create your own significance.

:D

-Michael C. Emmert

Thanks for the link to the Apollo 11 transcripts, ...

2009-07-20T21:29:41.815-07:00

Thanks for the link to the Apollo 11 transcripts, Mike. Fascinating stuff! I've done a bit of programming on resource-constrained embedded systems, but nothing compared to the computer they had on the LM. Still, the work I have done certainly helps me to appreciate the engineering that went into developing their software. Wow. 1202!

Comments on Mike Brown's Planets: Lunar dreams

Howdy, Mike :) I timed my leave from Vietnam to c...

Thanks for the link to the Apollo 11 transcripts, ...