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There are a lot of public holidays that, because of their
historical origins, no longer seem relevant to us. Some are
even a little distasteful. Everyone who works appreciates a
day off but do Australians really want to celebrate the
Queen's birthday? Do Americans really feel that President's
Day is a day for celebrating or, given the behaviour of the
last
8 or so, is it a day of shame? Does the fact that some
pilgrims
stopped for lunch before massacring the natives deserve
recognition?
And let's not get into the problems of Christmas and Easter
or
the holidays that mark the anniversaries of wars.
Not long ago there was a day when an event that began as a
cynical exercise in political propaganda transcended
nationalism and ideology; when a government spent billions
of
dollars on a project that hurt no-one; when the whole
world
could look at their televisions and see something that made
them feel good about being human.
Let's dump one of the old holidays and make July 20th
Apollo Day - the only public holiday that
encourages people to look up and hope, to remember that
once humans put their mind to it they can go anywhere and
do anything.
Sputnik Tree Ornament
http://www.halfbake...k_20tree_20ornament
What caused a few random thoughts to bump into each other. [sirrobin, Feb 04 2001, last modified Oct 05 2004]
Kennedy Space Center's Apollo Page
http://www-pao.ksc....y/apollo/apollo.htm
[sirrobin, Feb 04 2001, last modified Oct 05 2004]
(?) The Plaque
http://images.jsc.n...o/AS11/10075190.jpg
I know it's signed by Nixon but the other three were OK guys. Notice that the illustration shows the whole world and you have to look at the fine print down the bottom to figure out which part of it they were from. [sirrobin, Feb 04 2001, last modified Oct 05 2004]
Better than Apollo day...
http://www.filmsite.org/rock.html
TBS would have to broadcast this on Apollo day. [pnewp, Feb 04 2001, last modified Oct 05 2004]
(?) Festivus from Seinfeld
http://seinfeld.dig...m/html/festivus.htm
For the rest-of-us [runonthespot, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]
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Annotation:
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The other milestones are but steps along the way. Apollo 11 was the destination. Celebrating one of the others would be like celebrating Thanksgiving on the day the pilgrims left England, Australia Day on the anniversary of the First Fleet's departure, or Bastille Day on the anniversary of the prison's construction. |
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As for American Imperialism... as I said the Apollo project might have begun as an exercise in propaganda but that's not how most people saw it by the time the moon was reached (by which time it was the Russians "playing catch-up"). |
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There is a plaque on the LEM descent stage which remains at the landing site. It says "We came in peace for all mankind." Even if it isn't absolutely true, isn't it a sentiment worth comemorating? |
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I'm all about having October 4th off. It's my birthday. |
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A happy Apollo Day to everyone who gave this a croissant.
To everyone else: thhhppppt! |
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Kind of reminds me of festivus (see link) |
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Awesome, awesome to the max! |
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I wouldn't say I find it "awesome",
[Quantum], but it is an exceedingly good
idea. |
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I'd give up my birthday in exchange for Apollo day |
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+ This is so good! We need to have some Happy
Holidays! |
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Good idea. In 2000 years' time the only name
from the 20th century in school history books
(assuming "school" and "books" still exist) will
be Neil Armstrong. |
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Oh heck yea. This is one of my all time favorite ideas
on the HB. |
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A fine idea! Except it should be called Sputnik day. Fair is fair. And Sputnik is a better name, Apollo being a beautiful womanizing pagan god - threatening to some. Sputnik, on the other hand, supposedly translates to "fellow traveller of earth" and the thing is cute in a non-godly way. Bonus: maybe the Russians would be a little less grumpy if we threw them a bone. |
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//maybe the Russians would be a little less
grumpy if we threw them a bone// - Russian
foreign policy is founded on the principle that
actions by any foreign state can only increase
their level of grumpiness. |
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Why not get the average date of all space events in
the cold war between USSR and USA, and call that
space day? |
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