It’s been a while since The Right Stuff was released. Gabby’s husband (Mark Kelly) was going back on the last Endeavor mission. The President referred to our Sputnik moment , and how we should move Science Fair under the Super (Bowl) dome. All this reminds me of a piece of moon rock on display by USAID in Saigon back in 1969.
At least, it dispelled the myth for me that once you stepped on the Moon, you can’t come back (Vietnamese folklore). In “burning flesh, jasmine smell”, I blogged about the burning monk. I went and saw his charred heart on display as well. Curious George!
Saigon. War time. Oh Suzie Q. President Johnson was quoted as saying “I left the woman I really loved (the Great Society) for that bitch of war on the other side of the world” (Grand Expectations pg. 597-98). Everybody’s attention was diverted.
From Gainsville to Pinkville, from Kent State to Ohio State.
I was forced to stay home a lot because it was unsafe to come back to school (Tet 68).
Mass graves in Hue and mass migration from Central Vietnam ( Nick Ut and his ” naked napalm girl” snap). Ironically, those blood-stained barges which had carried refugees from Central region, conveniently served as chartered “swing low, sweet chariots which carried me …home to the US” .
Had there been a place further South than Phu Quoc Island, we would have migrated there
(as it turned out, there were a bunch of ships down there on the war’s last day. The late Richard Holbrooke had been sent to extract Navy intelligence from those ships, which were eventually allowed to dock at Subic Bay, after having to change their flags per international law).
From Presidents on down, America did not know what to make of Vietnam.
But I know what to make of Moon Rock and classic Rock.
Others might enjoy putting away their pajamas for tuxedos.
But I cherish my first glimpse of the Moon rock, my Sputnik moment. From then on, to me, what’s said in the village stayed in the village (tales of the Moon Festival).
We are called to seize our Sputnik moment. Egyptian demonstrators put up a banner that says “We want, the internet”. Officially, online access is an important part of our human rights now (dictator’s dilemma i.e. cutting off service to a few affects the many). In today’s context, President Johnson might as well be quoted as saying “I left them both – for this? ” – namely both the Great Society and the Lost War to gain the 11th place on the Happiest Country chart. Maybe folklores ain’t far from the truth after all: once you left the mansion for the moon, you could never come back. Not as the same man with the same mentality. No more gook. Just geek. And I found out to my surprise, I am not alone.
Thang Nguyen 555 