American Heroes

Oh America.  Where have all the heroes gone?

America is running out of true heroes.  I have seen this coming for many years.  Today, it was made more apparent with the passing of Neil Armstrong.  This man, for me, has always been one of the great American heroes.  I can still recall that fateful July 20th in 1969.  I was going to be a sixth grader the next school year and was an astronaut junkie.  I even had a model of the Lunar Module and the Command Module.  This was  a BIG deal.  America had beaten the Russians to land on the moon and now Neil Armstrong was going to be the first person to ever walk on the surface of the moon.

It was going happen late that night and I was allowed to stay up and watch.  I can still remember laying on the floor in front of the one TV as Mamma and Daddy watched on.  Neil Armstrong became an immediate American hero.

When Andrew texted me about Neil Armstrong passing away, I related the story of me staying up late to watch him walk on the moon.  His reply was that all the great accomplishments have already been done and his generation didn't have any real heroes.  This brought back another memory.

Twenty years after Neil walked on the moon, I did an activity with my Biology classes to see if they looked up to persons of science like I did as a kid.  I had the students list ten entertainment persons (singers, actors, etc.).  No sweat.  They could all do this.  Then I had the students list ten sports persons.  Again, most students could do this with no problem.  Then I asked them to list ten inventors or scientists.  Most could name Albert Einstein and some listed Benjamin Franklin. But that was about it.  I did this activity for several years and cannot ever remember anybody naming ten.  Of course, this all led to the students having to do a report on a famous scientist.  Sneaky, huh.

So thank you Neil for inspiring a whole generation.  I'm sorry this new generation hasn't kept up.