Like many Americans of my generation, I remember that balmy July evening.
[img]609|left|||no_popup[/img] Everyone crowded together to marvel at the fuzzy black and white images being broadcast from thousands of miles beyond the borders of our mind’s eye.
The first step. The immortal words. Who could forget the awe mixed with patriotism.
We had kept the promise made nine years earlier by a President who would not live to see the marvel.
The Eagle had landed.
It was a singular moment of national pride. It was an instant of unparalleled optimism when all things great and small seemed possible for every American.
President Kennedy’s 1961 challenge following the successful spaceflight of Alan Shepard was the spark that lit the Roman candle of our collective American spirit.
The young President understood the American psyche. He was part of the generation that had survived the Great Depression, defeated the Nazis and held the line against global communist aggression.
Why It Was Important
Kennedy knew that going to the moon would not feed the hungry or hold the Russians at bay. Rather, it was an attempt to seize the intangible. It was a vision, a promise, a glimpse at the edge of our imagination.
Although five other Apollo crews duplicated the feat, the unique glow of our great national accomplishment never was recaptured. In the decade that followed, the triumph of Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins was obscured by the debacle of Vietnam, Watergate and a hostage crisis.
Forty years ago today, all eyes turned to Cape Canaveral as the astronauts of Apollo 11 blasted towards their once inconceivable goal. Along with their space helmets, their tiny capsule carried the hopes and dreams of an entire nation.
As we commemorate that moment, we would do well reflect not only on where we have been as a nation, but where we now must journey.
[img]610|left|||no_popup[/img] While America remains the world’s only great power, we have forgotten what it means to be truly great.
We have forgotten that greatness requires sacrifice and leadership.
We have forgotten that greatness is the product of vision and persistence.
Greatness Is Earned, Not Conferred
We have forgotten that greatness is not a birthright, but rather a virtue that must be earned and renewed.
We are a nation in the midst of an historic crisis. We are at a crossroads; a place from which we must select the course of not just the next 10 years, but the next 50.
Will we be a nation caught up in our own myopia? Or one that turns challenge into opportunity?
Will we flee in panic from the uncertainties? Or embrace the possibilities of a future unknown?
Apollo 11 remains a symbol of what we Americans can do when we put our minds to the task. If we can put a man on the moon, surely we can not only survive this ordeal but flourish from the challenge.
John Cohn is a senior partner in the Globe West Financial Group, based in West Los Angeles. He may be contacted at www.globewestfinancial.com
