Time Passes

When I was a kid in the '60s, the World War I veterans headed up almost every parade in my hometown. It awed me that they were honoring their service from as many as 50 years before! Of course, today even World War II veterans (which includes my late father) are even farther removed from their service.

It is almost incomprehensible, then, that a handful of WWI veterans remain alive -- though one less, with the passing of the world's oldest resident last week, Henry Allingham, in England:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090718/ap_on_re_eu/eu_britain_obit_oldest_man

There remains just a single American WWI veteran, Frank Buckles, who lied about his age to enlist in 1917. At 108, he lives today in Charlestown, W. Va.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Buckles

Send me to the moon

I was 12 years old when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon the day before my Mom's 44th birthday in 1969. Joe Dendel had spend the night before at my house, and we watched the telecast together on our black-and-white television.

I had caught Holy Hell from my older brother, Tom, for writing a story about dogs in space and self-propelled, personal rocket backpacks while in grade school. Of course, spacedog Laika was an early pioneer (and victim) of the Soviet space program; and, shuttle astronauts have been using the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU) -- nyah, nyah, Tom! -- for years now. But I remain astounded and ashamed that we haven't been back to the moon for more than 30 years, and don't have the technical capacity to return today even if we had the will.

Were the pioneers -- Von Braun, Glenn, Armstrong, Kraft -- that much ahead of their times, or are we that unimaginative today?

What have we been doing for 40 years?!

Why should you care who I am?

I'm 52 years old with 49 years of professional experience! The math is obvious -- either I'm a prodigy, or a master of multi-tasking.

Truth to tell, it may be both. I DO have a genius IQ, and my ACT (back in pre-dumbed-down 1973) composite score was 30, but I also have quarter-century stints in TWO DIFFERENT professions: journalism (full-time and part-time for 25 years) and public education (beginning 25th year this week!). In short, I've been expressing my opinion publicly -- either for publication or impressing young minds -- for a long time. I wrote my first published news story in 1976, the same year I (mistakenly!) voted for Jimmy Carter for president. I taught my first classroom (and their progeny since) in 1985 (by which time I'd whole-heartedly adapted to Ronald Reagan in 1984, after a flirtation with Libertarian Ed Clark in 1980).

So, you see, both my professional life and political views have undergone examination and re-examination, only to wind up becoming pretty stable in my latter years.

My goal, of course (wanting to be a self-respecting blogger) is to earn a link from Glenn Reynolds' InstaPundit. I bet I will -- someday! In the meantime, you're in on the ground floor. Pat yourself on the back. Now, let's go make waves...