One Small Step...

A few years ago, upon the death of one of my personal heroes, Sir Edmund Hillary, I wrote this.  It was a dare to dream, and I wondered whom the future Edmund Hillary's would be, whom the future Neil Armstrong's would be.  Well, today, we may not be closer to finding whom the future Neil's are, but we sadly have to say goodbye to the one who inspired the world by taking a giant leap on our behalf.

I wasn't alive when Neil Armstrong first went into space, and honestly, the Space Program was on the wane by the time I was born.  And yet, it inspired me.  I would spend hours learning about the explorers and adventurers who would reach the skies and the moon and the poles and Everest and wonder what sort of person could dare to dream so large.  How does one make the impossible possible?

It's a sad commentary that today, Armstrong's feat would be unlikely if not impossible to duplicate-the costs would be too much, it would be accused as rampant government spending that should be given to the private sector.  People today don't dream as big, and politicians can't poll miracles.  Instead of fighting to test the bounds of physics and engineering and science, we have politicians that question science as basic as reproduction.  There's a giant red planet out there just begging for some brave soul to walk upon it, diseases like cancer and AIDS that are one great discovery away from being cured, a world climate on the brink, boundless space that is begging to be explored.  All we need is men and women who want it badly enough, and are willing to support progress rather than a retread and sucker in to banal and comfortable platitudes.

So Neil, I gladly salute you and your dare to dream, and the gift you have given to the world.  And to anyone reading this, I dare you to look at the stars, to learn something new, to help to discover the impossible.  Neil may have taken his last step, but mankind still has the ability to make more giant leaps.  God speed.