In the summer of 1969, I sat with my parents and waited for the grainy, black-and-white, ghost-like TV broadcast to show Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the moon. That moment remains crystal clear in my mind. After both astronauts re-entered the Lunar Module from their moon walk, I went outside and looked up at the moon. It was waxing crescent on that night, and I was in awe that there were two men on its surface at that very moment.
I was a huge space exploration nerd back in the day, so this was the culmination of years watching countless Gemini and Apollo space launches. I followed the early Mercury missions as well and remember my father telling me on the ride home from school about how John Glenn took a nap as he orbited the earth.
Walter Cronkite, the news anchor for CBS evening news for years, was always there as my space exploration guide. He was THE voice of the American space age. He literally anchored all the manned missions from Mercury, Gemini, the Apollo landings and into the space shuttle era.
He anchored 27 of 30 hours of Apollo 11 moon landing coverage in 1969. As millions of people watched the anticipation of the first men to land on the moon, Cronkite so struck by the moment of the landing, sat silent for seconds in wonder at what he just witnessed. Eventually, he just said “oh boy.”
I was immersed in the promise of space as it numbed the news of the turbulent 1960s. I recall in 1968, the Apollo 8 circumnavigation around the moon. The iconic photo taken by crewman Bill Anders of earthrise over the moon was glorious. That same year my favorite movie was released: “2001: A Space Odyssey”. The film and the story further stimulated my belief in what humankind could discover and achieve.
However, that same year, our nation witnessed news about the horror of the Vietnam Tet offensive. It was a shock to so many because we had been constantly hearing how we were winning that war. And then Tet happened. On one hand, the country was tearing itself apart about war and protests while literally reaching for the stars with hopeful intent.
After the Tet offensive had come to its grizzly “end”, Walter Cronkite on Feb. 21 at the end of his newscast did something he seldom did before: he opined on the war.
Cronkite stated: “It seems now more certain than ever, that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate.” He then urged the United States to seek peace negotiations “…not as victors, but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best they could”.
Cronkite’s take on the Vietnam morass led then-president Lyndon B. Johnson to state: “If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost middle America.” Several weeks later, Johnson announced he would not seek re-election. Cronkite’s statement was the final straw that shifted the nation’s opinion on the war.
So fast forward to just several days ago, I found myself sitting and watching a NASA feed of the huge Artemis 2 rocket sitting on a launch pad in Florida. I felt that old sense of wonder and glory. Then the magic began when so many of us started to count backwards from 10, then 9, 8, 7, 6… As I welled up with pride and those old feelings surging within, I could not help but think about the current state of the world and the similarities of the 1960s.
Again, there is a war and protests in the streets. Certainly, we have varied circumstances today, but it is still a world in chaos. The difference is we do not have a Walter Cronkite to lead us through the dark.
Cronkite, who was a WWII correspondent, covered the tumult of 1950s, ’60s and had us look to the stars, is now long gone. He was our trusted news source.
Even though there was very adamant right leaning and left leaning citizens in our country back then, we had “Uncle Walter” who could transcend through all the noise.
Now we just mostly roll in the pig slop every day, shouting over each other with lies, rage and internet memes. And our commander in thief (oops) excels in verbal excrement production constantly.
Things will change. It appears that this is the beginning of the end of a dark period, yet we do have a way to go. I believe we have enough resilient humans to get us through our current existential crisis.
As for me, I have Artemis 2.
Stephen Podwojski is a retired, well-traveled former hotel consultant and training specialist. He was also a long-time original member of the Register Mail Community Roundtable.
This article originally appeared on Galesburg Register-Mail: Many Paths: Space exploration offers hope in a chaotic world | Opinion
Reporting by Stephen Podwojski, Special to the Galesburg Register-Mail / Galesburg Register-Mail
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