News Issues

REMEMBERING WILLIAM ANDERS

One of the astronauts on Apollo 8 died this week. Of all the Apollo missions it was 8 that made the most impact on me. I had just landed in America and became interested in space because of the Apollo program. I took this children's book out of the school library. 

This was the first book that I ever read on my own, outside of school, and it began a lifetime of reading. 

Apollo 8 did not actually land on the moon. The program was taken one step at a time with the ultimate goal of landing on the moon. Apollo 8 went into orbit around the moon and then returned to earth. 

The highlight of the program was, of course, Apollo 11 that first landed astronauts on the moon. Apollo 8 was a preliminary to that but it made a greater impact on me because not only did it take place in the winter, when I was mostly inside, it took place during Christmas break, when I was home from school. Apollo 11, in contrast, took place the following summer when I was mostly outside.

There is a compound posting "The Moon", August 2023. Section 5) is about the Apollo program. 

THE ALCATRAZ ESCAPE 

There was an article in the news about the famous Alcatraz Escape of 1962. Three escapees got away from the island prison but the official story is that they almost certainly drowned, although none of their bodies were ever found.

I believe that they survived and escaped. 

Put yourself in the Government's position. If it was admitted that prisoners had successfully escaped from what was supposedly the most secure prison in the country it would encourage every prisoner in every prison to try to escape. What about the careers of the guards and prison officials and the reputation of the prison service in general?

So of course they didn't escape. They must have drowned. Don't even think about them having made a successful escape.

SHIP MISHAP ON LAKE SUPERIOR 

An iron ore freighter on the Great Lakes, the Michipicoten, took on water through a cracked hull. Fortunately the ship made it to port. This was the same kind of ship, carrying the same kind of cargo, and on the same Lake Superior, as the Edmund Fitzgerald which sank in 1975. If you have heard of the Edmund Fitzgerald it may be because of the song by Ontario's Gordon Lightfoot.

It is not known exactly what happened to the Edmund Fitzgerald. A severe storm was going on at the time but a storm, as the only factor, really shouldn't sink a ship like this. The wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald shows that the ship broke in half. That may be because it was a long ship and one end hit the bottom while the other end was still afloat. A question in both mishaps is whether the ship might have struck a shoal.

Hopefully this recent incident will provide a clue as to what happened to the Edmund Fitzgerald. 

DRONES AND THE DEMOGRAPHICS OF WARFARE 

Centuries ago the defense had the advantage in warfare, as castles were difficult to attack. The unfortunate thing about modern mobile warfare is that it encourages war because it gives the advantage of momentum to the attacker.

Drones have shifted what we could call the "demographics" of warfare further toward favoring the offense. There are missiles that can definitely shoot down drones. The trouble is that the drones might cost a thousand dollars each while the missiles to shoot them down might cost a million dollars each. But drones are also a defensive weapon due to their effectiveness against tanks and parked aircraft.

CLOSURE OF CATHOLIC CHURCHES

There is a lot of local lamentation over the planned closure or merging of many Catholic churches around the Buffalo area. Let me tell you why it is happening.

When people move away from belief in God they tend to replace Him with something else. What happened in the Twentieth Century is that people who, for the most part, no longer believed in God replaced Him with one of a variety of political-economic or nationalist ideologies, such as Communism and Nazism, and then killed millions of each other that had made different choices. 

What happened around Buffalo was not quite as destructive but was still a move away from God. The Buffalo Bills, the pro football team, are the new religion. Highmark Stadium is the new St. Peter's Square. Watching the Sunday game is the new mass. Communion might now be done with chicken wings and beer. The awaited Return of Jesus someday has been replaced with winning the Super Bowl someday. 

THE LONG ISLAND SERIAL KILLER

The Long Island serial killer was in the news again. Although at this point it is only an allegation and the fundamental principle of U.S. justice is that an accused person is presumed innocent until proven guilty and the burden of proof is on the prosecution side.

The point is that the accused has been described as a "predator". But what about the national symbol, the eagle? It is also a predator. I am not sure if I have ever seen an eagle in the wild but around where I live there is a lot of hawks, which is a relative of the eagle. They glide without flapping their wings and hide in the glare of the sun around midday, just waiting for a small animal on the ground below to get a little too careless. 

All around Buffalo are statues of it's namesake animal, although it was not native to the area. Image from Google Street View. 

The Buffalo is a communal animal. The city of Buffalo really lived up to this during the Blizzard of 2022, which followed the mass shooting. The Buffalo is also a strong animal. Packs of wolves will follow a herd of Buffalo, waiting for an old or ill buffalo to fall behind the herd, but the herd is too strong to be attacked directly. 

Wouldn't the Buffalo be a better symbol for America than the eagle? We saw this in "The Power Of Symbolism", March 2024. 

HOMETOWN CONFORMITY ISSUE

In my hometown let's continue working to overcome this unAmerican "fit in and follow the crowd" mentality. This is what caused the Love Canal to happen. It was known that houses and schools should not be built where deadly chemicals are buried but everyone just went with the crowd's thinking and the city has never recovered from it. This is not what America is supposed to be about.

Every dictator encourages a strong sense of community and a "fit in" mentality. Neighbors are to keep watch on each other and make sure that no one tries to think for themselves. Socializing is preferably to be done in markets and public places so that the dictator's secret police can see who is friends with who. Couples should meet through the community because that gives the community leverage over the individual, which ultimately makes it easier for the dictator to rule. 

Dictators want young people to be fit, to serve in his security forces, but for older people it is different. It might harm the standing of an aging dictator to look older than his peers. So people may be discouraged from healthy food and exercise when older. 

I am sure that we can overcome this thinking and be real free Americans. Freedom means being what you want to be, not being pressured to "fit in" with other people. This thinking brings everyone, and the whole city, down to the lowest common denominator, as you can plainly see. Freedom means "standing out", while dictatorship means "fitting in".