Christmas Eve 1968, Genesis reading from moon orbit after a very tumultuous year of chaos, war, unrest
Fifty years ago - 1968
Earth was a troubled place
Some highlights in America at that time:
* The unpopular Vietnam War and more unpopular draft
* Assassination: Martin Luther King Jr., Robert F. Kennedy
* Riots at the Chicago Democratic National Convention
* Counter-culture hippie movement
* President Lyndon B. Johnson and President Elect Richard M. Nixon
A popular TV show at that time was The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (1967 - 1970). The show featured s labor of love by filmmaker Chuck Braverman, described as:
A quick trip through the USA during the turbulent 1968
But in December 1968, Apollo 8 sent astronauts, Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders, orbiting the moon for the first time in history.
On their Christmas Eve broadcast, the crew transmitted the iconic Earthrise photo while reading from Genesis, as shown below:
Back to the future, 50 years later, these still are troubled times.
As we finish the year 2018, words from a hymn, This is My Father's World come to mind. And the last verse, not always included in other renditions, gives the reason we celebrate the birth of the Savior of the world:
This is my Father’s world:
That though the wrong seems oft so strong,
This is my Father’s world,
Jesus who died shall be satisfied,
And earth and Heav’n be one.
And in the closing words of astronaut Frank Borman:
"And from the crew of Apollo 8,
we close with good night, good luck,
and God bless all of you -
all of you on the good Earth."
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Other post in the series:
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thank you for the memories!
never stop writing
m
The year 1968 was very memorable for me. It was the year I got my Masters degree and experienced so much. On New Year's Eve, 1965-66 I witnessed a moving talk by Martin Luther King from a balcony in Omaha, Nebraska, not 30 feet away, where he spoke from the stage directly below me… Declaring his willingness to die for he had reached, "the mountaintop."
And then, while at my cousin's wedding in New York City, my busy schedule prevented me from seeing Bobby Kennedy lying at rest in St. Patrick's Cathedral, less than a short walk away from the Westside Motel where we were staying. My grandmother was able to go see him the day before the wedding.
In August, she flew by jet plane out to San Francisco where I lived, so she could ride back in my car at 100 mph with air conditioning to Wisconsin with me. She was in her 60s but loved travel and adventure. She had accompanied me to California in 1966 where we stopped at many national monuments and parks to enjoy what heritage the Western United States offered. She told me the story about how 50 years before, when her family moved from Arkansas to North Dakota by ox drawn wagon, it took the whole summer. There were no hotels so they stayed in farmer's yards at night.
While in California, we watched the new movie, A Space Odyssey: 2001. Like when we drove in the mountains, she told me that she, "Closed my eyes for some of it."
Ron