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The Daily Dose/July 20, 2009
By Gaylon Kent
The Writer's Shack
Back from hiatus! Well, for today, anyway. Notes from around the Human Experience on the 40th anniversary of man's greatest adventure. We couldn't find the Photo Department in time to include pics.
ONE SMALL STEP: 40 years ago today, on July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 separated everything that came before from everything that came after and landed on the Moon. Later that same day, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first human beings to walk on solid ground somewhere other than Earth. They, along with Michael Collins, would return to Earth on July 24.
Yeah, This Is A Bulletin: It should come as no surprise to anyone who has read The Daily Dose regularly, whenever we bother to put out columns, of course, that we exited the safety of the Witness Protection Program to acknowledge the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.
Get Your Official Writer's Shack Policy Right Here: Our position on this matter is clear: the Apollo 11 moon landing was mankind's finest hour.
A History Lesson: While the impetus for the Apollo program came from President John F. Kennedy's May, 1961 speech to a joint session of Congress, Kennedy's speech at Rice University in September of 1962, while perhaps less known, was one hell of a speech and is as relevant today as it was then.
Quote That Sucker: The most popular quote from that speech is probably this one:
"We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win.."
But there are portions that are equally compelling. First, Kennedy did a very good job of putting the whole of human history in context:
"…condense, if you will, the 50,000 years of man¹s recorded history in a time span of but a half a century. Stated in these terms, we know very little about the first 40 years, except at the end of them advanced man had learned to use the skins of animals to cover them. Then about 10 years ago, under this standard, man emerged from his caves to construct other kinds of shelter. Only five years ago man learned to write and use a cart with wheels. Christianity began less than two years ago. The printing press came this year, and then less than two months ago, during this whole 50-year span of human history, the steam engine provided a new source of power…Last month electric lights and telephones and automobiles and airplanes became available. Only last week did we develop penicillin and television and nuclear power, and now if America¹s new spacecraft succeeds in reaching Venus, we will have literally reached the stars before midnight tonight.
Dry, Technical Matter: The spacecraft Kennedy was referring to was Mariner 2, which had been launched in August and would fly by Venus in December.
Oh, Jesus H.: Mariner 2 flew by Venus once, reached its closest point to the Sun, abut 65 and-a-half-million miles on Dec. 24, and transmitted its last message on January 3, 1963 and continues to orbit Mr. Sun.
Warning!: Kennedy then said it was natural that some would want to stop, and take a break and rest for a spell. But he also advised:
"…the United States was not built by those who waited and rested and wished to look behind them. This country was conquered by those who moved forward--and so will space…the vows of this Nation can only be fulfilled if we in this Nation are first, and, therefore, we intend to be first."
What The Hell Happened?: How come a nation, more or less starting from scratch, that had put man on the Moon within ten years has done nothing more adventurous since then than shuttle people to the International Space Station and repair a telescope? With that kind of head start, this country should have had human beings on Mars by 1985, at the latest.
What The Hell Happened II? Now, we need over decade's notice merely to get back to the Moon. Project Constellation - authorized in 2005 and ultimately designed for a manned mission to Mars - does not call for a lunar landing until 2020 and even the most optimistic projections do not put a man on Mars until 2030 at the earliest.
What The Hell Happened III?: Well, America, its government and its people, lost interest in a great national effort. This was also time America started gaining weight and when television, now in living color, took its position, never relinquished, as the focal point of the American home.
FunFact: Well your home, not mine. We've been tee vee free here at the Writer's Shack for over a decade now.
Sudden Thought: We've thought a lot about this matter here at the Writer's Shack, and it now occurred to us that, perhaps, Apollo was so far ahead of its time we are still trying to catch up. We are not entirely sure we are on board with that just yet, though.
Now Wait A Minute: And if that's the case, where the hell's the leadership that put us ahead of our time? This country is no longer led, it's managed by people we elect despite the fact they really don't care about us, they only really care about getting reelected.
Honestly, we haven't been led since Kennedy. Johnson tried, Nixon was a crook, Ford meant well but had no chance, Carter was in over his head, Reagan himself was managed like no other president before or since, George H. W. Bush was ineffective, Clinton should've led but one scandal after another took its toll, Bush II was not bright enough for the job and President Obama is giving it the old college try, but unless he starts showing some more backbone he is going to get caught up in the same Congressional quagmire everyone else gets caught up in.
The Bottom Line: The loss over our failure to accept a great national effort is ours. Our great national effort has been reduced to fussing over American Idol contestants.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN OF THE JURY: While we were out, we did our part and had jury duty! We are not making that up. We have too much respect for you for that.
A Warm, Personal Remembrance: I was really excited when I reported for duty one Monday morning, probably a little more excited than I should have been. I'd wanted jury duty since I was a kid and dad - who seemed t get jury duty every other week - would talk about his jury service at the dinner table. Since dad couldn't, of course, talk about the case he was on, there was always an air of mystery to jury duty, which made it even more desirable.
What The Hell's Going On Here?: And, somehow, I had always managed to avoid it. I have no clue how courts decide who to send jury summons' to, but I have only received two over the years despite having held a drivers license and being registered to vote my entire adult life.
Leading Off: The hilarity got off to an early start. We were on an elevator heading to the 14th floor, a journey that was so slow there was already someone sitting in the corner of the elevator when we entered on the third floor.
"I'd like to remind everyone," the guy said while writing some notes. "Of the presumption of innocence enjoyed by everyone afforded a trial by jury."
That was pretty funny. Or, rather, it had me laughing. The guy then asked me what floor I was getting off on and I said that was classified and to emphasize its secrecy I leaned over and covered the display showing the floor numbers with a hand, which was pretty funny, too. I then informed him we were the jurors your lawyer warned you about and would be dispensing our own, special brand of justice.
We got to the court room and 13 were seated in the jury box and I was #9 in the gallery. I wasn't too worried about getting on the jury, and shortly after returning from lunch I found myself seated in the jury box, managed to survive four rounds of attorney dismissals, took the juror oath like I was being sworn into the US Senate. Before you knew it I was listening, raptly, to opening statements and live, sworn testimony.
The case was a fairly routine DUI with Substantial Bodily Harm case and, since the defense lawyer admitted his client had been plastered at the time of the crash, the only question was whether the crash had caused substantial bodily harm.
Really Dry, Technical Matter: The Great State of Nevada defines substantial bodily harm as:
1. Bodily injury which creates a substantial risk of death or which causes serious, permanent disfigurement or protracted loss or impairment of the function of any bodily organ; OR
2. Prolonged physical pain.
Taking Command: Backed by a broad-based coalition that included strong female support, though there was also substantial blue collar (the stereo installer) and minority (the black guy) support as well, yours truly was elected foreman. Our initial vote showed a 10-2 result in favor of acquittal on the substantial bodily harm charge, though, guided primarily by defense counsel's admitting his client was sloshed, we were unanimously in favor of guilt on the DUI charge.
Eventually - and the deft, gentle, yet firm guiding hand of the foreman simply cannot be disregarded here - the entire jury became convinced of the innocence of the defendant of the substantial bodily harm charge.
This Is Probably A Violation Of Regulations: It was rather profound checking the box indicating our verdict and signing the verdict form, and still have the copy of the 18-pages of jury instructions I pilfered right out from under the nose of the bailiff.
COMING UP: We anticipate returning to duty this fall with the return of The Bottom Ten, The Daily Dose and something new, Nothing of Substance: The Official Writer's Shack Blog!, tidbits that lack the merit required for inclusion in the Daily Dose, or crap we were too lazy to research or off-the-top-of-our-head-crap we are too lazy to flesh out. The book we are working on this hiatus is coming along nicely, and we might feel safe returning to a regular Writer's Shack schedule. You need us. Don't bother to deny it.
Quotebook: The greater our knowledge increases, the greater our ignorance unfolds. - President John F. Kennedy, speech at Rice University, September 12, 1962.
Comments? Recipes? Complaints? Email the Writer's Shack here!
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