njlauren
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Joined: 10/1/2011
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DC, I knew I liked you, but if you have read Barbara Tuchman, well, definitely up there on my list. Hmmm, mankind's better moments?
-Funny DC mentioned Barbara Tuchman. JFK had read the Guns of August (a magnificent book about the opening months of WWI, not one of mankind's higher moments) around the time of the Cuban Missile crisis, and because he had read that book realized 17 million people died in what was one gigantic mistake, and as a result he sought out a peaceful resolution to the situation he was in, not wanting to make the same mistake; most people were telling him to bomb, which had we done it, likely would have led to nuclear war (some credit also goes to Khruschev, who realized in turn that the blockade gave him an out, which wasn't popular in the politburo, but he took it). It was a great moment when someone had learned something from history and used it to avoid a disaster.
-The many times in NYC, that cold,heartless place, where someone slips and gets hurt, someone gets hit by a car, and those uncaring,mean people come to their help, or when a tourist is lost, there are 10 people trying to help them, and being NYC, someone probably speaks their language, too.
-The guy in today's NY Times, a physicist working for NASA, who is doing basic research on if it is possible to go beyond lightspeed, refusing to listen to the naysayers and the like, and daring to dream.......
-The parent with a child who is different, who refuses to do things the way he is told to, who paints outside the lines, and says "go for it"
-The people who show up when an oil spill hits or the like, and who tirelessly are there trying to help the poor animals recover, happy for the ones they save, grieving for the ones they can't.
-Anyone who sees someone in need, and instead of thinking what is in it if I help them, simply gives of themselves without thinking of themselves.
-The lone person in a sea of hostility who stands their ground and through tireless work, changes things. Ralph Nader was once that, Tesla as crazy as he could be was like that (he ended up giving his patents to George Westinghouse for AC power because he believed that strongly that it was the way to go with powering America, and it was the only way to prevent JP Morgan from crushing him)
-Rachel Carson, who single handedly got people thinking about the consequences of what we were doing to the environment, and as a result Ospreys, Hawks and Eagles are no longer threatened with extinction and I now see these magnificent animals flying around where I live in NJ, when I was a boy they didn't exist, they were near extinct. I attended a concert not long ago where the composer Stephen Stucky did a piece in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of that book, and by the end I was crying, partly in gratitude of what that book meant, and also because the ending of the piece is silence, representing what might have been...
-For the many people who have helped me in my life, mentored me, taught me, hopefully made me a better person, that is another of man's greater moments, that there are always people willing to help someone find themselves,learn and grow. I quite honestly find the whole self made person myth a downer, because it refuses to recognize that no one does anything by themselves, and often those who help are unsung enough.
-Human kids are amazing. For all we complain and bitch about them (as our parents did about us, who is kidding who), they still somehow remain kids, looking at the world with amazement, even simple things, and then have this incredible desire to share it with others. It amazes me, especially these days where they are practically grooming kids to be an ivy league graduate with a degree in finance from pre school on, that kids still can be kids despite the pressure being put on them, and there are kids, like my son, who are willing to do things because they are passionate about it, dancers, artists, musicians, whose one desire is to express the joy of being human.
-For all its faults, the US, for at the very least getting rid of titled nobility and aristocracy, and at least trying, if not always so well, to live into the idea that an individual is an amazing thing, because it is. I wished we lived into more,there are always people trying to create new forms of nobility, whether it is power, economics, or in some system of belief, but that basic concept is still out there after 200 years. It isn't always obvious, the 1950's conformity was a major reach the other way, but it always seems to come back, and hopefully going forward it will be with us.
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One small step . . . - 
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The Apollo program eventually got abandoned because the Soviets gave up. The only way we'd have bases on other planets is if the Soviets decided to spend even more on space research and if the Cold War continued for a few more decades.
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