How Did We Ever Get So Jaded?
This July will be the fiftieth anniversary of the Apollo Eleven moon landing. I remember watching the news coverage of it like it was yesterday. I also remember seeing pictures and videos of the whole world watching along with me. All of us looked on breathlessly as Neil Armstrong took “One small step…”
I remember also when we learned that Apollo Thirteen was in grave danger and that the crew was making an emergency return to earth riding in the lunar landing module because there wasn’t enough oxygen in the command module to sustain them. I remember, again, the whole world watching on screens from Times Square to Red Square, from Buenos Aires to Tokyo. And I remember that people were not just watching, they were PRAYING for their safe return.
I remember, too, the whole world following heart surgeon Dr. Christian Bernard in South Africa as he commenced and then completed the first human heart transplant. We ALL prayed for his success and survival of his patient.
I remember, too, the whole world listening to John F. Kennedy’s Inaguration speech, where he said that “The torch has been passed,” and that America would “pay any price, bear any burden… to assure the survival of liberty.”
I remember the whole world listening to Reverend Martin Luther King, who said “I have a dream…”
I remember the whole world watching, again, as Ronald Reagan, in West Berlin, said: “Mr. Gorbachev… TEAR DOWN THIS WALL!”
I remember all of these things, and more. But it is with some sadness that I reflect that those days are mostly gone. No such unanimity, it seems, exists any longer.
In this age of “comedians” who show decapitated heads of presidents, actors claiming fake victimhood, millionaire athletes disparaging our flag, petty dictators who shoot missiles over populated cities, tyrants who chant “death to America”, universities that silence discussion and debate, activists who threaten and intimidate, one question comes to mind again and again: HOW IN THE WORLD did we ever get so jaded?
In times of unprecedented prosperity, increasing liberty, breathtaking mobility, startling connectedness, limitless information and education, amazing health care, and surprising security, WHAT IN THE WORLD has happened to mankind’s esprit de corps?
It seems to me that a combination of self serving politicians, wrong headed educators, disaffected youth, crazy activists and a very confused media, have somehow breathed “bad air” into mankind’s collective psyche at a time in which we should feel pride in our progress, gratitude for what we have, and resolve to make the world even better. With this in mind, I pray that ALL of mankind whisks away the choking air, and, instead, breathes deep of the liberty, prosperity and just plain goodness that history has bestowed upon us.