The day before liftoff, a mule-and-wagon carrying the Reverend Ralph Abernathy (head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and successor to Martin Luther King) appeared with a group of protestors before the gates of KSC.Rocket Men, pp. 74-75
The decade had seen a small but voluble public protest against Project Apollo, and some of the SCLC's chiefs were its most visible opponents, its leaders arguing that federal monies would be better spent on Earth-based needs instead of starry dreams.
Medical operations director Charles Berry:
I went up to [Reverend Abernathy] and I said, "You know, I do not understand why you would come and try and demonstrate and say that we ought not to have this flight to the Moon. Do you have any concept at all about what this can mean to the world and to us as a nation, having the capability to do this?"
He said, "It's really not about the capability to do this, it's this money that's going to the Moon, this money's going to be on the Moon, and it should be being spent on these people down here on Earth."
And I said, "There isn't a single dollar going on the Moon. Not one dollar going to be on the Moon. Every one of those dollars that's gone to this program, and a lot of this nation is involved in that, and every one of those dollars is going to somebody down here on Earth. If some of your people wanted to be working on some of that, they could have done it. I'm sure that jobs are there. You could work on it, and you could be getting some of that so-called moon money, if you want to call it that."
"That's not what I'm saying," he said. "The thing is, that money ought to be spent on these people right down here."
I said, "Well, you obviously don't understand what is happening here, and it's being done for your good and for everyone's good. If a nation is great, it's my view that that nation ought to be able to do both things, and we ought to be able to do the things that are necessary here. We need the science and the technology on the cutting edge if we're going to be a nation that's going to progress. If you don't, you're going to die as a nation and you're not going to solve any of the problems here on Earth or anywhere else."
Later, NASA Administrator Tom Paine went out to meet the reverend and offered to let some of the group watch the launch from the Center.
Abernathy would later admit, "I succumbed to the awe-inspiring launch ... I was one of the proudest Americans as I stood on this soil; I think it's really holy ground."
Moving…
All content on this blog from Tim McGhee has moved to the Tim McGhee Substack, and soon, Lord willing, will be found only on that Substack.
Sunday, July 15, 2012
Holy Ground
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Blog Archive
-
▼
2012
(87)
-
▼
July
(47)
- The cost of green tape, yellow tape, and red tape
- A Foreign Threat to Our Democracy
- Will breaking the law be necessary to stand for el...
- Tributes to Jessica Ghawi Redfield
- From her last 65 days
- "The day that I felt the proudest to be an American"
- What no one imagined. What anyone could imagine.
- Bible Memorization Standards
- Holy Ground
- Multiple-legged food tasters
- Susannah Mushatt Jones, 113
- Demanding action against Nigerian Islamic terroris...
- Abortion: a weapon of mass destruction
- The Affordable Care Act, by the numbers
- Affordable Care Act, an expansion of government
- NFL expands local broadcasting
- Minnesota leading in educational choice
- Speaker Boehner: there's a better way
- 46 million Americans on food stamps; US population...
- Replacements for the Affordable Care Act
- There are already 12,825 pages of Affordable Care ...
- Affordable Care Act to cost $2 trillion
- 21 separate tax increases in the middle of a reces...
- Rep. Dr. Benishek: $675 billion tax increase is ma...
- Democrat: Affordable Care Act 'cuts more than $400...
- Doctors Caucus: replace ObamaCare with patient cho...
- House Republicans stand for freedom 31 times
- Top 10 ways health care law increases costs
- Former Members of Congress 2012 Annual Report to C...
- The largest transfer of productivity in American h...
- Wiring the Afghan Internet
- 'President Obama cares. He cares about you. He car...
- Health care law = 50% of small businesses less lik...
- Answers to unemployment: less health care costs, m...
- Too many young African American and Hispanic men c...
- Sentence first--verdict afterwards
- 'Why don't you Members of Congress vote to bring o...
- Rep. Frank Wolf: Fire Ambassador to Vietnam David ...
- Letter: Governor Perry to Secretary Sebelius
- Diminishing what was once a great profession
- Remembering Andy Griffith
- Mastership of the world
- 'The biggest freeloader is the Federal Government.'
- Affordable Care Act Implications
- One thing that stood in Thatcher's way
- Like putting a string across a football field
- A Chief Justice Reviewing the Chief Justice
-
▼
July
(47)
No comments:
Post a Comment