Anniversary and Passings

Originally on Home Page: Tuesday, 1-28-14.

ChallengerExplToday, Jan. 28th, is the 28th anniversary of an event that had a profound, life-altering impact on my life, the loss of Space Shuttle Challenger and crew on a bright, sunshiny, cold, Florida morning.

The last words heard from Challenger that morning were, “Roger, go at full throttle-up!”  Crista McAuliffe, the Teacher in Space, was one of 11,000 teachers across the country, including myself, who signed on for the ride.

Like many other teachers that morning, I rode with her aboard that vessel.  I’d been chosen to be Iowa’s alternate teacher, and all of us who signed on to ride the Shuttle that morning were right there with her, in spirit, if not in person.

America seems to be on a collision course, too, as the so-called great, exceptionalist, capitalist (capitalust?) system seems to be chugging down the tracks at full throttle-up toward a full-throttle collision with collapse.  Sad.

How does all this apply to light pollution and starry, dark night skies?

We humans have the power to alter the course of our vessels of discovery, like Challenger, Discovery, et al., to apply the brakes of our full-throttled runaway train, to realize what problems lie ahead, but we refuse to do anything to prevent coming collisions.

So, no matter what I write here on this website, light pollution will continue to accelerate at full throttle-up, shining on toward the final death of the starry domain overhead. Sad.

Pete Seeger, singer and seeker of truth David Bernz
Pete Seeger, singer
and seeker of truth
David Bernz

And this morn I mourn the loss of another: Pete Seeger, seeker, singer of truth, died last night, age 94.  Thank you, Pete, for all the light your songs sang into my soul and heart, a light much better’n all the light the Corporate Light Blighters, et al., soak the sky with every night in search of ever more $$$$ and power.

Am I Liberal?  No!  Conservative?  No!  I’m neither and both.  I don’t vote for either party, Rethuglicans or Demonrats.  Neither are worthy!  I’m liberal on some issues, conservative on others — whatever those two words mean.

Like most objects in the Cosmos, I shine from both of the far ends — radio to Gamma Ray — of the spectrum of light (energy) and all in between.  You?   Think about it!spectrum

One comment

  1. I’m with you Jack. All my life I’ve been what can be termed an “earth-firster”. But these days, it’s get all the profits we can and the future be damned! No corporation seems to care, but the “Big Wheels” make tons of loot, die, and then they won’t have to face the mess they caused – but their grandkids will!

    So it’s the same with trying to reduce light pollution; we’ve tried for decades and what do we get, the new energy saving, profit making, LED’s that blind us and make the night sky five or six times brighter than it is now. How is that progress?? Losing our oldest cultural heritage – the beautiful night sky – is one of the worst things that can happen to a society. But I guess profits, power, and overinflated egos are the wave of the future. Too bad, this was a good planet!

    Earth, RIP.

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