"History, despite its wrenching pain,
Cannot be unlived, and if faced
With courage, need not be lived again."
Maya Angelou, On the Pulse of Morning
In the 1980s, I worked on the team that produced a 12-part educational video series on Contemporary American History for Guidance Associates, Inc* - From Cold War to Hostage Crisis: 1945 to 1981. We collected and assembled the sights and sounds of 36 years in human affairs; footage depicting war, Cold War, progress, fights for rights, cultural changes and myriad shocks that reverberate to this day.
As scriptwriter, I was surprised I had to convince the team to include a segment about the space program. Like millions of my contemporaries, I had followed the nail-biting first launches, fearing for astronauts and joining with Mission Control teams to exhale deeply in celebration or in dashed hopes.
Meh!
In the video production meetings of the 1980s, sticklers for earth-bound events voiced skepticism that space exploration would mean much in the scheme of things. One expert shrugged, “How long will people remember Tang?”
I presented a list of innovations rating a longer-shelf life than powdered orange drink. The moon landing segment made it into the mix.
By the way, today the list of innovations familiar to consumers includes:
• Camera phones
• CAT scans
• LED lights
• Athletic shoes
• Water purifiers
• Dustbusters
• The Jaws of Life
• Wireless headsets
• Laptops
Big Blue Marble
In his book, A Crack in the Edge of the World, Simon Winchester maintained that our first view of the Big Blue Marble altered humankind forever. Other than those who hold to the Flat Earth Theory, we would never be the same.
That achingly beautiful vision and the reality that "You are here" transformed our understanding to the core – from the influence of shifting tectonic plates on earthquakes to paradigm shifts concerning pollution. Seeing Earth ushered in the environmental movement and Earth Day. Children recited the mantra, “Give a hoot. Don’t pollute,” and whole nations undertook to repair the damage from runaway industrial activity.
What We Have Seen
I’ve witnessed launches with my equally space-smitten husband, Vincent Mancuso. We saw, heard and felt two earth-shaking shuttle launches from mere miles away and watched as shuttles disappeared over the Atlantic Ocean. Clear across the state, we stood one pre-dawn on a St. Petersburg fishing dock in 2005 to see the orange glow of a rocket propelling the Cassini spacecraft on its mission to Saturn. In December 2017, we sat on Coca Beach watching a re-usable SpaceX Falcon 9 booster rocket return to Earth, landing - as graceful as a ballerina - on the site called Oh Course I Still Love You. Our visits to Kennedy Space Center have the aura of pilgrimage, minus the kneeling.
A Banner Day and Dark Night
May 30, 2020 saw a launch of two men from American soil to the International Space Station. The astronauts soared as SpaceX and NASA engineers in the command center conducted their mission in pandemic masks. These men and women represent our diverse society working under a global threat, showing what humans achieve together when educated and motivated by visions of a bright future.
On this same day, recording ongoing outrage at police brutality, cameras rolled as peaceful city residents and rampant militants faced police dressed like Darth Vader troopers. Neighbors came forward in the aftermath to sweep up the broken glass. The nation's Tweeter thumbed about "thugs," warned of siccing "most vicious dogs" on the crowd gathered before the White House, and asked if his supporters would come make it, "MAGA NIGHT."
The Next Script
Plenty of 21st Century film exists to show eight years of relative progress sandwiched between horrific events, the latter threatening one giant leap backward for humanity. The next educational video script may begin, "With all due apologies for the past, here is what happened to bring us this volatile era. Like humans who came before you, do with it what you will."
One Resource: On the Pulse of Morning
Solar Flare, Pastel by Vincent Mancuso