Veteran’s Day

As one of the “minor” holidays, for most Americans, Veteran’s Day goes by with little notice. I dare say that even most young people now serving in our nation’s military barely gave this day a nod prior to their enlistment.

For the many who have forgotten the roots of this day and why it is important, I bring to your attention the following:

“Thanks to heavy and successful lobbying from the travel and leisure industry many “federal” holidays are now celebrated on Mondays. That’s great if you work for the government, or in a bank. Not so great if you work retail. Or in a restaurant or supermarket.

But Christmas, New Years, Independence Day, Thanksgiving Day and Veterans Day are not guaranteed Monday holidays. For good reasons.

Monday holidays make a lot of sense: especially if you have the day off, someplace to go and money to make it all work. But for some events that are date/tradition specific, the date, not the day of the week, is the big deal.

Very few people who are still alive remember the original event, World War I, that led to Armistice Day, the original name before it was legally changed to Veterans Day. At one point it too was celebrated on a Monday until somebody said, “hey wait a minute!” Turns out November 11 is an important date, a date to remember, even if it was (as many self-centered people say) before before they were born. Still, it happened.

World War I ended, by an armistice, that was to take effect on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. Tragically, more than 10,000 men died that day even though their commanders knew well in advance that it was over and there was no point in fighting anymore.

Many students of history think the war shouldn’t have happened. That it could have, and should have, been avoided. They say it was a “bad” war that set the stage for even more bloodshed in a good-as-in-necessary war, World War II.

Understanding World War I, what happened and why, is important if you want to understand what’s happened since. President John F. Kennedy once told a friend that every world leader should be forced to read about it at least once a year. He recommended Barbara Tuchman’s book, The Guns of August. Not a bad idea from a bona fide veteran of World War II.

My own favorite book on the subject is 11th Hour, 11th Day, 11th Month, by Joseph Persico. He points out that more people died that day, a day when no one needed to, than on D-Day, the Allied Invasion of Normandy. That also happened before a lot of you were born, but it still happened.

Pardon the quickie history lesson. Just thought it would be nice if all of us, whether working or not today, gave it some thought. This is not a fun holiday. But is an important one.” by Mike Causey

“We are all in the same boat on a stormy sea and
we owe each other a terrible loyalty.” – G. K. Chesterson

In the Shadow of the Moon

I’ve always had an interest in space and space exploration. The idea of what lies beyond planet Earth, what wonders exist in the heavens above has occupied my thoughts in varying degrees since childhood.

I remember as a child watching TV while the Gemini and Apollo space capsules blasted off into that great unknown, then returning in a fiery reentry and splashdown, Navy ships, helicopters, rafts and divers rushing to the scene to secure the capsule and extract the astronauts before their craft was claimed by the waters.

Living in Florida these past 20 years I’ve had opportunity to exercise that interest to a greater degree than otherwise possible, and with the coming of the Internet, the availability of information and imagery is like manna, or perhaps a needed “fix” for this addiction that oft runs hot and cold. The Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral are located on the central Atlantic Florida coast, a short drive from our home, and excite the imaginations of children and adults, myself included.

One of the cool things about living here, for me, is that under the right atmospheric conditions I can view launches from my home. They vary in degrees of visibility; some day launches are a mere contrail arching through the sky with a faint orange flame at its head.

Night launches are the best, recently on November 14 STS-126 (that’s Space Transport System number 126) launched at 7:55pm into partly cloudy skies of an early evening. As the shuttle accelerated in speed and altitude she suddenly appeared over the trees between the clouds suspended in the air on a tail of flame quickly rising on her rendezvous with space and the International Space Station.

The most amazing and beautiful night launch I viewed was STS-33 in November 1989. At the time I lived in a semi-rural area and that evening our overhead skies were clear but there was high altitude overcast at the launch pad. As the shuttle engines ignited the fireball lit the undersides of those clouds and with them the whole horizon. It was an indescribable sight of beauty and power.

No matter how many times they launch there’s always a crowd of people of all ages lining our streets and staring into the heavens hoping for a glimpse of the start of this most recent of adventures. Perhaps some of it is the spectacle syndrome, hoping against hope to be there if another shuttle launch fails in the manner of STS-51L, Challenger, which, with her crew, was lost 73 seconds into the launch in a huge fireball seen across the state.

No one wants to see that ever again. But space is a harsh mistress and space exploration is, at its essence, a process of discovery that is built on taking high risk. Each shuttle and launch vehicle contains millions of components, each critical to the mission. Failure of even the seemingly most innocuous of parts could have disastrous consequences.

One of the most awesome of experiences you can have is to be at KSC when the shuttle launches. I’ve viewed it twice, once from Titusville with my nephew and a second time from across the Banana River at the Merritt Island launch viewing spot for the general public. Even though it’s 8 miles away, when the shuttle launches the roar and blast of the engines rolls across the water and physically shakes your body. (Google Map)

I’ve said all this to introduce these few words about the 2007 documentary “In the Shadow of the Moon” directed by David Sington and introduced by Ronnie Howard. This film follows the space program of the 1960’s from the lofty goal set by President Kennedy in 1961 through the achievement of that goal in 1969 and beyond.

While this is not a scientific overview of the race to the Moon, it succinctly captures the mood, challenges, achievements and failures of the space program during this time.
With overwhelming odds and technology that by today’s standards was less than primitive, this nation set its collective eye on the goal and through determination, unrelenting effort, innovation and even dumb luck achieved that target in a manner that was acclaimed around the world.

The film is based on interviews with the men who risked their lives to attain that objective. Buzz Aldrin, Alan Bean, Mike Collins, Ed Mitchell, John Young and many more of these adventurous risk takers tell the story in their own words, in the process providing wonderful insights to the space program and the men behind it.

If you have any interest in science, history, space exploration, technology or human nature, this is an important study that you simply must see. It’s available on DVD and if you subscribe to Netflix you can add it to your queue. You’ll thank yourself for doing so.

“We are all in the same boat on a stormy sea and
we owe each other a terrible loyalty.” – G. K. Chesterson

D-Day musings

D-Day. Remembering the day when the Allies stormed the beaches of Normandy, France and began the surge that eventually turned the war in Europe around and defeated Nazi Germany.

Today, 64 years later, many have forgotten the sacrifice, the loss of life, the horror that was D-day. If you wish to honor those brave men who made up that force, find a copy of “Saving Private Ryan” and take the time to watch what many who were there call the most accurate portrayal every of this day.

Most, too, have forgotten, or never heard, the June 6 comments of President Roosevelt, his prayer, for the troops and the nation. If you haven’t, click the link below to listen and view some photos of that time and day. If you have never heard this, do so now, it’s only about 6 minutes, but time well spent.

I have to wonder, if a President of the United States were to present these words today, what would the response be? Would some rise up and rail against this fusion of “church and state,” this attempt at “establishment of religion?”

Would some demand for a prayer calling on the gods of other belief systems to bolster a sense of plurality. A prayer to the gods of Hinduism, Wicca, Islam? A prayer to Buddah?

Surely we in this great nation have forgotten the importance of prayer in the public square. On D-day even those who gave religion scant attention took time, were reverent and focused on, rather than themselves, those troops fighting and dying on those sandy shores for the cause of freedom, their freedom.

Why do we find that such a difficult thing to do today?

“We are all in the same boat on a stormy sea and
we owe each other a terrible loyalty.” – G. K. Chesterson

Remembering their awful gift

Reflecting on Memorial Day, quick thought. How many of us truly understand what this day is about? Too often we get consumed with picnics, watersports, auto racing, et al, forgetting this day is set aside to remember the sacrifice of those who have died to protect our freedom we take so lightly.

Originally Decoration Day came out of a day set aside by Southern communities to honor those Confederate Soldiers who died in the American Civil War. In 1868 a proclamation was issued to observe this day nationwide, and in 1967 Congress officially renamed it Memorial Day and moved the observance to where it is today.

More importantly than the history of the day though, are the people whose sacrifice we remember. Those who died of battle fields foreign and domestic, so that we can have the freedom to eat burned food outdoors, get wet, watch cars run in circles and act foolish and noble.

The freedom to do as we please, to think as we please, to speak as we please.

It was their sacrifice that makes this possible, surely we can take a few moments on one day out of 365 to remember their gift to us, the living, the free. Surely for just a few moments we can not take their sacrifice for granted.

Mendy Belz of World Magazine wrote a thoughtful piece, Blood That Speaks, in the May 17th issue. It ends as follows:

“Their blood cries to us from the ground like the blood of Abel: Tell us your story, we ask, so we won’t forget. It leaves us weak and ready for the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word.”

Let us, on this day, tell their story and not forget their awful and precious gift to us.

“We are all in the same boat on a stormy sea and
we owe each other a terrible loyalty.” – G. K. Chesterson

What are we celebrating after all?

Today is President’s Day, created by Congressional law in 1968 by the Uniform Monday Holiday Act that moved most US Federal holidays to a Monday. Originally it was to combine both Washington’s Birthday and Lincoln’s Birthday into one holiday, but as most things Washington (the town not the man), stuff fell through the cracks. When signed, the act only applied to Washington’s Birthday.

The first designated Federal holiday to honor a citizen, Washington’s Birthday was so ordered by Congress in 1880 for the District of Columbia and expanded to the states in 1885. Its purpose was to honor the man who was our first President and is regularly referred to as “the Father of Our Country.”

George Washington was commander-in-chief of the Revolutionary forces who overthrew England, presided over the convention that created the US Constitution, unified our nation and after unanimous choice of the Electoral College became our first President, setting the standard for all subsequent Presidents to attain.

For decades on this day our citizens were reminded of this great man and his accomplishments and took time to honor his important and vital place in our history. However, in recent years it has become little more than a reason to have a retail sale.

Outside of government and banks, few take leave of work, fewer remember the man, and even fewer remember that without him, this great nation may well have never come into existence. Today, it’s all about a day off work or school and another reason to compel people to spend.

On the other hand, a recent addition to the Federal holiday calendar, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day came into existence in 1983 to celebrate the life of this man who undoubtedly had a great impact on the United States civil rights movement. Still, one would be hard pressed to say his impact on the US and her citizens was as far-reaching as that of George Washington.

Even so, were one to imply that Martin Luther King, Jr. Day be observed in the same manner as the President’s Day observance has become, there would be great cries of “heresy” and disrespect for this man. If one were to suggest celebrating “King Day” by holding a sale he would no doubt be venerated as having ill will towards the Black community.

It took about 20 years from it’s inception to when business began to accept President’s Day as a “non-holiday” and no doubt there were many who cried out at this dishonor as it turned into a retail sale day. Yet today we allow it as acceptable and expected practice, many looking forward to the possibility of finding a good “deal”.

I have little doubt that sometime in the future, certainly not as quickly as it took President’s Day for there was substantial prior history to that day of remembrance, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day will, too, become another little recognized day where most forget the man and his accomplishments and turn their attention to the discounts of the retail sector.

People will cease demanding the day off from work to honor the man, memorials will be forgotten, parades no longer organized and the words so often quoted, “I have a dream…” will take their place in obscurity along side Washington’s “…reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”