Armstrong, Who?

As anyone with a television, computer, or even decent hearing and consciousness would know the world has recently lost one of its greatest explorers known to mankind. The great Neil Armstrong, pioneer of the moon, legend and inspiration to those who truly understand the impact of that first step on virgin ground, passed away this year on August 25th. This may come as old news to most, as the school year chugs along from class to class and the moon continues to rise and set each night. But with information coming and going it’s imperative to stop at this great loss and ask ourselves just how much this incredible journey, achieved some 40 years ago, is being remembered from generation to generation.

“I was at my uncle’s. I was thirteen. He woke us [my cousin] up at 1am to watch it. It all happened kind of quickly,” says Peter Anania as he reflects upon his experience of the momentous event witnessed in his youth.

“You could see the footage of the landing, grainy, and right before that first step [Armstrong] said the famous words, ‘That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,’ and then jumped down,” a moment Anania describes as nearly surreal, something fantastical, ‘too good to be true’. “It was the biggest accomplishment that man has ever done before, everyone just staring in amazement, like at a baseball game. I wanted to be an astronaut.”

This is a perspective that many of that moment could share and never forget, which makes it even more surprising when the Internet recently burped up the humiliating personas mourning the death of the Tour De France cyclist. Okay, now everyone say it collectively... “What?” The mix-up is not only confined to uninformed young adults, spewing out their two cents on overly-casual sites, but this disaster has even crept up onto one of the major news sites available online. NBC’s headline, “Astronaut Neil Young, first man to walk on moon, dies at age 82” is easily an embarrassing moment for the professional newswriting universe. At UNH, Ryan Brown (Sophomore) and Kyle Ruby (Senior) discuss their view on the impact of the lunar landing in relation to our generation.

“I think the reason for the mess up was that it’s not really on anyone’s mind anymore. There have always been stupid people making mistakes, and now with the Internet it’s just easier to catch them doing it,” says Senior, Ruby.

Brown chimed in with his opinion on the significance of such a historic event...

“I think Armstrong set the bar, giving us the feeling of something greater to work towards. I think it should be a goal for future generations to be the next Neil Armstrong.”

It’s easy to say that we all make mistakes, but to confuse one of the most famous men in history with anyone else is something that should be reflected upon. When that brilliant hunk of rock so routinely glides from point to point each night, it wouldn’t hurt to occasionally glance up, remember and understand the importance of that name which represented such feats, to contemplate everything we have accomplished, and to imagine what great excursions have yet to be achieved.