After hearing the news of Neil Armstrong’s death, the first thought I had was that his death was somewhat symbolic of the dying of our space program. Armstrong’s words, “One small step for a man; one giant leap for mankind,” changed humanity forever. Now that Armstrong is dead, I fear those words are being forgotten.
We walked on the moon! Just take a moment to pause and consider that. Human beings built a ship that took us into the heavens and there were no gods. That ship carried us to another world and allowed us to see our world from another. This inspired a generation of people to wonder and work for a better future. We dreamed of moon bases, flying cars, and the exploration of the universe. The sky was no longer the limit.
But look at us today. No moon base, no flying cars, and very little space exploration. Society isn’t dreaming of a better, brighter future. All our science fiction now deals with post-apocalyptic societies in which humans screwed up so badly that the damage just couldn’t be fixed. Society looks for guidance in ancient holy books instead of the science of tomorrow. NASA was gutted and despite the success of the Mars Rover, the main stream media believe that the ridiculously small amount spent on the project wasn’t worth it.
It’s worse than that though. Creationism is continuing to try to force themselves into our science classes at the expense of actual science. Our political leaders don’t even have a basic understanding of science and insist that global climate change isn’t actually happening despite all the evidence to the contrary. Even our so called, “liberal” President turns to ridiculous superstitions for guidance instead of the best and brightest minds on Earth.
Neil Armstrong’s death should be a rallying cry for people of reason. We need to get this country and all the people of the Earth to start looking forward toward tomorrow again. We need to get the priories focused on space exploration rather than fighting over imaginary lines on a map.
I am asking you to contact your elected officials (at their homes if necessary) and let them know that you want more funding for space exploration. Don’t just sit there and complain on the interwebs; do something. Fight for the future of humanity.
