As I spent Memorial Day weekend in the print shop, I paid close attention to the progress of NASA’s Mars Phoenix lander via its Twitter page. Although we’ve sent unmanned probes to Mars before (waaaay back during the Viking days, and the Mars Rover mission), Phoenix seems to be igniting a small amount of excitement about space exploration again, which can only be a good great fantastic thing. At this time in history, when the world is mired in various crises stemming from mankind’s lapses in judgement and refusal to work together on a global scale, we need a little bit of the wonder and optimism that space exploration seems to instill in us all. While I would not equate Mars Phoenix’s landing with Neil Armstrong’s first steps on Luna by any means, I do think it’s a step in the right direction.
With that in mind, I turn your attention to a short manifesto which seems to be grabbing people’s attention this morning. SFC William H. Ruth III, of the 101st Airborne Division, has written a short essay, volunteering for a one-way mission to the red planet. In his words:
“While reading Jim McLane and Nancy Atkinson’s thoughts on Space Colonization, I started to realize that we ‘ALL’ have lost our way. We have become so consumed by petty differences and dislikes of others that we all have forgotten our pre destiny of something better. We above all other living organisms on this planet were given the tools to advance and to expand our thoughts past simple reproduction and survival. What will we ultimately do with that destiny? Will we falter at a hint of death or danger? Or will we do now what so many in ‘ALL’ of the world’s history has done before us.
Here is an ‘Out of the box idea’, let the hero’s of ‘All’ our countries, for once, risk the ultimate sacrifice for something greater than one man’s idea. Maybe once let these men and woman that rise every morning and say ‘today I will stand for something’ and say ‘evil will not prevail, not on my watch’. For once let them volunteer for us all, you never know, mankind, the human race. It might just catch on if we let it.”
I can’t begin to express how much respect, admiration, and genuine awe I have for this man. Ruth is made of the stuff that makes for great military men heroes: the determination and tenacity to get a job done, in the service of something greater than him/herself, but without losing sight of their humanity and their place in the greater scheme of things, as a member of the human species. People like SFC William H. Ruth give me hope for humanity.
