We are approaching the 40th Anniversary of A Historic Moment in Human History.

[ddeclue]

Forty years ago, in 1968, at Christmas time - in the midst of the Vietnam War, less than a year after the Tet Offensive and the siege at Khe Sahn - when Americans were dying on the field of battle by the hundreds each week, mere months after the assassinations of American prophets and martyrs for peace and equality Martin Luther King and Robert Francis Kennedy - in the year of the riot at the Chicago Democratic Convention and the crushing of the Czech republic by Soviet tanks - and indeed riots around the world - three frail human beings finally broke the bonds of gravity that have held us fast since the beginning of life on our planet and they left our Earth and traveled on a voyage of discovery to the Moon a quarter million miles away from every other human being alive - further than any human had ever traveled before.

What they brought back more than anything else was this one picture:



One might say that this picture cost ten billion dollars to obtain to that point in the space program.

It was an expensive photograph to be certain.

Yet for humanity obtaining this one single photograph has been quite an extraordinary bargain.

This one simple picture has fundamentally, even transcendentally altered our understanding of our own human existence - it has informed the human imagination of the fact that our very existence here is tremendously more fragile than we had all previously imagined.

There is only one Earth, it is a small blue oasis in the tremendous vastness of space - and if we destroy it, if we exploit it instead of protecting it, if we indeed destroy each other then there is no second chance.

At a minimum it is 35 million miles to the nearest planet - Mars - that could possibly, remotely have a chance of supporting human life.

Even this is, at present, a highly theoretical pipe dream of scientists and engineers and would only be possible with a gargantuan effort - and there is nothing else at all within trillions of miles like the Earth that could support human life.

John Kennedy. who boldly challenged Americans to go to the Moon with the words "We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things..not because they are easy but rather because they are hard", keenly observed in 1963 mere months before his own death that: "in the final analysis, our most basic common link, is that we all inhabit this small planet, we all breathe the same air, we all cherish our children's futures, and we are all mortal."

With that one photograph, those three Apollo 8 astronauts brought a sense of reality to JFK's observation that all human beings could finally understand.

We ARE all mortal and ours IS a small planet - we must stop our fighting, we learn to respect one another, we must love one another and show each other compassion, and we must take care of this Earth - it's all we've got.

THIS was the unavoidable fundamental message inherent in this one momentous photograph.

These three astronauts were the three wise men of our modern age - following their star in search of enlightenment.

Could there be a more appropriate story for us to tell our children from the modern age at Christmas time?

Their voyage was a voyage of faith - a faith fulfilled - a faith in the idea that we can overcome all obstacles if put our minds, our hearts and our will into overcoming them.

Their voyage was also a voyage of hope - hope for "the vast future" that Lincoln spoke of - hope for a better, bigger, more charitable future that we can all share in - where poverty, racism, hate, fear, war, and selfish exploitation of each other and of the resources of our planet are relegated to the past.

Finally their voyage was finally a voyage of love - a love for discovery, a love of adventure, and finally a love for our fellow human beings that sought to make us realize that there IS a better way and it IS time for humanity to finally make a fundamental change for the better.

It was said of this voyage that it saved the otherwise dark and miserable year that was 1968.

Their voyage is our voyage - for it belongs to all humanity now.

Hopefully we may yet find a way to save the year 2008.


Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah and Happy Holidays to all my fellow DU'ers here on the Good Earth!


Doug D.
Orlando, FL

Apollo 8 Christmas Message Delivered Christmas Day, 1968 from the Moon:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfhpIoXYMWk

[Hekate]

1. KnR. It was an incredible moment. nt

[ddeclue]

2. Thanks...

:)

[Odin2005]

3. Some say Apoll 8 was even more important then Apollo 11.

It was the first time we visited another word, and saw the Earth as a whole, from a distance.

[ddeclue]

4. .

[Clio the Leo]

5. Puts things into perspective, doesn't it? NT

[DavidDvorkin]

6. I worked on that mission

and have a copy of the Earthrise photo on my living room wall.

A mirror image print, but that's another story.

[OhioBlue]

10. that's awesome. n/t

[Blue_Tires]

7. ttt

[Veruca Salt]

8. I love that photo!

k&r!!

[OhioBlue]

9. kick. thank you for such a wonderful post. n/t