Columnist revisits his optimistic viewpoint after Armstrong steps on moon
At age 75, I don't remember much that happened 50 years ago, but I can clearly recall the Sunday when Neil Armstrong stepped from the bottom rung of the ladder of the Apollo Lunar Module, the "Eagle," onto the surface of the moon.
In Armstrong's words, heard by millions around the world, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."
The image on the 18-inch black-and-white television in our two-bedroom apartment in Palatine was grainy, as most of our TV images were, and our 3-year-old son, Michael, sitting in my lap, was restless, not fully appreciative of the fact that his parents had kept him up way past his bedtime to witness history.
I admit I had to reread my 50-year-old Herald column to recall what was going on in my young-adult mind, and particularly, what I was looking forward to in the coming years.
I wrote that "it was easy to forget the wars, the poverty and hunger, the crime, the disease, the prejudice and other failures of man while all eyes were focused on the moon."
Apparently, that period of excitement and anticipation was brief, as these same afflictions persist, some less severe, but some much worse. I told Michael in that column that in another 25 years (from 1969), he "might be in a position to fly to the moon." Optimism among many was high, but reality suggested otherwise. World tensions were not going to lessen, at least not between the USA and the USSR, following the American "win" in the race to the moon. But who would have thought in 1969 at the height of the "space race" that 50 years later, astronauts from the U.S. and cosmonauts from Russia would be sharing space vehicles exploring space?
So, what has changed in 50 years?
First, the good: Son Michael, now fully grown, has his own 3-year-old son Connor and an almost-2-year-old son Wyatt and they, with daughter-in-law Melissa, live in Palatine, not far from their grandparents.
Also good: I've lived 50 more years, twice as many as I had lived when Neil Armstrong landed on the moon. I have the same wife, Laurel, and the 50 years have been full of adventure and undeserved happiness.
But as satisfying and as exciting as the past has been, I wish I could be more optimistic about the future. I will force myself to be hopeful. But when I look back at 50 years and see the lack of progress toward true security and world peace, it is depressing. Fifty years from now, when grandson Connor is the same age as his father is today, what will have changed? What new threats will face Connor's children and my other grandchildren and great-grandchildren?
One of the most dramatic realizations is there is no longer a strong sense of national or personal security. Our enemies have changed. Fifty years ago, I didn't worry about al-Qaida. Are we confident our defenses could prevent another World Trade Center attack? Who are the "new" enemies we haven't thought of, or heard of, in 2019?
Fifty years is more than half the life span of most Americans and there have been many technological advances. I didn't have a cellphone in my pocket then. Our cars may or may not have had automatic transmissions. When I was living in Arlington Heights, my phone number was Clearbrook 3-1026. Inoculation against measles began only two years before, in 1967.
Our technology will - it must - continue to grow to keep us in a world leadership position.
But while technology must continue to help us advance, nations must live together. We can't move away from Canada or Mexico, geographically, just as France cannot move away from Germany, and Argentina cannot move away from Chile.
Any hopes and dreams of future space exploration - at least by humans - have dissolved. The costs, time and potential benefits of landing on Mars or anywhere else are unrealistic in today's world. A more critical and reachable goal is to find ways to live on the planet we now occupy and to enjoy the Moon and the heavens through telescopes and the next generation of mechanical space explorers.