Neil Armstrong has died, after recent heart surgery. I am old enough to have watched the grainy video of that first step. It has been 43 years. I really thought I might take be taking a similar step by now. Armstrong was a bit like a real-life Kirk. While for me Kirk and all of Trek represent the best of our species projected into the future, Armstrong was a real person, a good man, an extraordinary pilot. A man who was not a hero who did something heroic. If the night sky is clear where you are tonight, go outside and look at the moon. It is our moon. We have been there. We will be there again. And all the other places.
Of course this is an appropriate place to honor him, and it's bizarrely petty to say there's a wrong place to pay tribute to the passing of a global hero. Star Trek was about the spirit of exploration and the human will to expand beyond our borders, beyond our limits. Neil Armstrong made that dream into a reality. The relevance is obvious.
I admire him in part for his commendable modesty: he always maintained that he and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon at the same exact moment. Let us not forget those who blazed a trail for him to follow -- the Mercury and Gemini astronauts, and the men of the Apollo missions like Jim Lovell who tested the modules in Earth orbit and in spaceflight to the moon and back before Apollo 11.
I was very sad when I heard about this today. From everything I've seen of him he seemed like a really cool person.
R.I.P Neil you were an inspiaration to many people.He certainly boldy wnt where no has gone before to be one of the first men to walk on the moon.
Actually, I think Misc, General Trek, TV and Film or even The Neutral Zone are far more appropriate locations with in the Trek BBS to mark respects to one of the most privileged and humbling human beings to walk this planet. As I said, this, as in Trek Lit isn't the place to do so. Oh I never said it was wrong, just not the right place, given the size of the board and there are at least two threads already marking his death, one in here, as in Trek Lit seemed redundant, but because of the existence of those other threads, I understand the need the OP felt to create another one three hours after it had hit the wires and those other threads had been created..
Well this forum is kind of it's own insulated community. I know I rarely venture to the other forums, and I know there are others who do the same.
^Yeah. One does tend to see the same names pop up in each forum. I started the first - and as far as I know only - thread in the Tv and Media forum. But as far as I'm concerned, the more chances that people get to mourn Mr Armstrong in the more threads, the better. Where they do it is irrelevant. He surpasses genres and headings.
Well TNZ and Misc forums aren't the best places for discussion in my opinion. The status quo over there just seems to be bashing people/opinions you don't like than actually discussing anything. I can't blame the OP for avoiding turning an Armstrong thread into that. I can't speak for the TV and Film board since I barely use it. It's a shame Armstrong had to go. He was my second favorite astronaut to be certain and his quote "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" will echo in eternity.
Guys, let's not make this a discussion about wether or not this is the right or wrong place. Let's talk about a pioneer. A good man. A good human.
Uh, isn't that the definition of "hero"? Tune: Melita Lord, guard and guide the men who fly Through the great spaces in the sky, Be with them always in the air, In dark'ning storms or sunlight fair. O, Hear us when we lift our prayer, For those in peril in the air. Eternal Father, King of birth, Who didst create the heaven and earth, And bid the planets and the sun Their own appointed orbits run O hear us when we seek thy grace For those who soar through outer space.
RIP to a hero. I was really into the space program when I was a kid. I used to watch all the launches and splashdowns that I could. I fondly remember watching Armstrong step onto the lunar surface. My whole family were together watching it. My mother was pregnant with my youngest sister and my father (who died three months ago )was painting the living room and stopped to watch. It was a special moment for me and my family, as well as the rest of the world. The death of Mr. Armstrong
^^^Strange, that last incomplete sentence doesn't appear when in editing mode, so I can't remove it. Not sure why that is.