Monday, July 27, 2009
It is often recommended that we judge men not by what they say, but by what they do.
Once America’s most trusted man, Walter Cronkite, died this week at age 92. As a newsman, he was largely judged by what he said.
And what did he say? Cronkite was huge booster of the space program. He died just days before the 40th anniversary of man’s first landing on the moon. He said that it was true and that it was good.
One day some guy named Bart Sibrel said it wasn’t true. And he once said it to the face of a guy named Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin — who was the second man to walk the moon that summer of 1969. Buzz didn’t like how he said it, and did something about it. With his fist.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUI36tPKDg4
Now, whatever side you fall on, you gotta think both of these guys deserve credit for calling it the way they see it: manning up, if you will.
On that same day that Apollo 11 descended to the surface of the moon, a ‘76 Delta 88 jettisoned off a Chappaquiddick bridge, taking a woman named Mary Jo Kopechne to her death at the bottom of the water.
The network news themselves never got to the bottom of the story — but the circumstances suggest her escort, Senator Ted Kennedy, in patently unmanly fashion, turned his back on her. He didn’t even report the incident to the authorities, until pressed later the next day. Maybe he was lucky that Cronkite was otherwise occupied in Cape Kennedy (named for the Senator’s assassinated brother, the former POTUS, John F.). The story too was submerged later when the Kennedy family “intervened” and the Kopechne family publicly abandoned any further interest.
That year, the world was introduced to a new pop band: the Jackson Five blasted (as they would say at the time) onto the charts with a hit, “I Want You Back”. Lead singer, Michael Jackson was just 10 years old in that summer when Neil Armstrong and “Buzz” stepped foot in the Sea of Tranquility. As is already well known — and you’ve seen it coming — in 1983, Jackson debuted his signature dance “Moonwalk”.
Jacskon’s recent death remains this month’s biggest news story — despite a floundering worldwide economy and an American war on two fronts. There is much media angst about his loss to the world. Certainly he was great, but it’s hard to suggest he was a man. His arrested development manifested in even suggestions of pedophilia — which were conveniently drowned out when lawsuits were “settled” out of the public eye.
I was close to Michael Jackson’s age in the summer of 1969. Of course I remember him. I remember the moon landing. And I remember Chappaquiddick. Because I delivered the morning newspapers that day and I still have a copy. When I was that young boy, I would naturally wonder what it must mean to be a man. Even back then, I knew integrity was always going to be a part of it. And today, if I could still have my choice, would I want to be a rock star or a leader of people?
I think I’d still rather be an astronaut.
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