Today marks the 35th anniversary of the first time man set foot on an extraterrestrial surface--our moon. It's sobering to think back to those times and remember what was going on, and think where we are now.

The year was a momentous one, for the U.S., and for the world. Richard Nixon was inaugurated president. Yasir Arafat was elected Chairman of the PLO. Golda Meir became Israel's fourth Prime Minister.

The first U.S. troops were withdrawn from Vietnam; 75,000 of our young men would return home by the end of that year. And Senator Ted Kennedy drove a car off a bridge in Chappaquiddick, leaving Mary Jo Kopechne to die underwater.

The summer of 1969 was one of free love, sex, and drugs for many. It was the summer of Woodstock, the summer the Newport Jazz Festival became a rock festival rather than a jazz festival. It was the height of the counter-culture movement, and some would say the pinnacle of rock and roll music.

In the midst of all these events, the earth became small to anyone who watched Neil Armstrong step out of the command module and onto the lunar surface, proclaiming it "one small step for a man, one giant step for mankind." And indeed, it was.

But have we lost that perspective? And have we lived up to the promise of hope and accomplishment and progress of that day?

The world went on to see Richard Nixon leave the presidency amidst the shame of Watergate and Vietnam. We had inflation, hostages in Iran, murderous attempts on the lives of Ronald Reagan and the Pope, and a murderous success on John Lennon, an icon of the sixties. We waded through the greed-ridden 80s, bore witness to the Challenger disaster and the Iran-contra affair. We blossomed in the 90s, only to be dragged by the right wing through the affairs--some manufactured, some not--of the Clintons.

And now we come to the 2000s, a century, a millenium, begun with the theft of an American presidential election. That shameful and traumatic event was soon to be followed by the horrendous terrorist attacks of 9/11. America went to war, first in Afghanistan, then in Iraq. We are still at war. And we still haven't captured the true enemy. Now there's talk of further war--Iran, North Korea.

I can't help but look back on that summer of 1969 and long for the innocence and sense of hope we had in that year. Despite Vietnam. Despite Richard Nixon.

And I wonder if we can ever feel that way again, despite Iraq, despite George W. Bush. Despite it all.

yeaH. We landed on the moon. :rolleyes: