3 Reasons Why the America We Once Knew Will Rise Again
Colonel Frank Borman lay in a pressurized spacesuit, strapped to his seat at the top of the most powerful rocket in history. In his ear, mission control counted down the seconds until the 36-story tall Saturn V rocket would ignite its massive engines. The rocket, sleek and shuddering, would then use its 160 million horsepower of combustive chaos to defy earth’s gravity and deliver the crew of Apollo 8 to space and the moon beyond. The Saturn V rocket had only been tested twice before — and never with a crew on board — with one of the two trials ending in fiery disaster. Borman and his crew knew they were beginning a journey in which a safe return was doubtful. But his boyhood dreams and experiences flying test flights and combat missions with the United States Air Force had led him to this moment, and he found himself at peace with whatever peril may lay ahead.
As the seasoned test pilot and astronaut waited patiently in the moments before liftoff, he glanced outside the window of the tiny pod that housed the crew. He noticed a hornet diligently building a nest against the side of the capsule. “Well, he is in for quite a surprise,” Borman thought to himself. Seconds later, the most powerful machine ever built erupted in a controlled fury, shaking the ground for miles around and whisking its crew skyward for their rendezvous with destiny.
The Apollo 8 mission in December 1968 propelled mankind beyond earth’s orbit and marked the first time in history that humans had journeyed to the moon. The objective of the mission was not to land on the lunar surface, the goal was to orbit the moon and return to earth. Apollo 8 provided NASA with invaluable knowledge and expertise and blazed the trail for the first moon landing the next year, in July 1969.
America in 1968 sorely needed a success of this magnitude. The year had been marred by assassinations of beloved public figures, racial discord, violent protests, the unraveling of the Vietnam war and the riots in Chicago. Very little seemed to be going right on earth at that time, so it was only fitting that humankind’s greatest adventure took place beyond the planet’s grasp. On Christmas Eve, more than one billion people around the world gathered by their televisions to watch the grainy but live footage of the astronauts’ message from space. As 1968 drew to a close, the entire world had come together to celebrate exploration and human achievement. The Apollo 8 mission served to shine as a beacon of hope during a very dark time in America.
The photograph at the top of this page is called Earthrise and was snapped by the astronauts of Apollo 8. While humans had witnessed countless sunrises, this photo provided the first ever view of an “earthrise”, as seen from the orbit of the moon. It appears on Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential Images in History list and speaks to people in different ways. Some view the photo as evidence of a triumph in American ingenuity and science. Others are deeply affected by the seeming fragility of the small blue marble floating in space, surrounded only by a dark void of nothingness. Whichever the perspective, the citizens of earth stood in awe of the magnificence of a simple photograph — and never looked at our world in the same way again.
Humans would last walk on the moon in December 1972, a mere four years later. Lawmakers and the public alike quickly had their fill of astronauts, rockets and moon landings, and the country averted its gaze, goals and growth plans away from further lunar missions. But America had accepted a seemingly impossible challenge and wagered its pride, prestige and prominence in its success. The Apollo program and moon landings remain a towering accomplishment in the history of engineering, discovery and perseverance.
Looking back on 2020, many people may compare the trials and challenges of this year to those experienced in 1968. This year America has suffered from a global pandemic, and struggled with civil unrest, protests, wildfires and hurricanes. And 2020 will conclude with a highly charged presidential election that has seemingly divided the country squarely into separate red and blue camps. Yes, 2020 has been a somber year, similar to 1968. But while the American flame has dimmed many times before, it has always been rekindled by the passion of its people and the ability to come together in pursuit of a common purpose. Throughout its history, America has emerged from challenging times stronger as a union.
At the very founding of our nation in 1776, Americans were a ragtag group of underdogs who craved much more than the world offered them. Over many decades, tired, poor and huddled masses yearning for freedom came to America seeking a new life. Between 1840 and 1915, 30 million immigrants stepped onto our shores from nations around the world. They were all optimists, looking for a better life for themselves and their families. Pessimists do not board a ship for a three-week voyage to a new land where they know no one, have no job and are unsure of the potential for their eventual success. These immigrants carried with them only hope, faith and dreams, even if their dreams were to simply make a living and provide for their families in the new world.
Most Americans are the descendants of those hopeful and enterprising people. The example set by these brave immigrants served to inspire future generations of travelers who longed to stake their own claims and create legacies that would outlive their own time on earth. American optimism and unity have guided us through the many dark tunnels of our shared history that led eventually to brighter days.
These adventurers were also pursuing an open and free market where their futures and fortunes would be forged by their own efforts and not constrained by a king’s proclamation or threats from an authoritarian government. The rags-to-riches tales of American success are too numerous to mention, but their stories form the connective tissue of America, and are the steel I-beams of the country’s economic structure and progress. For centuries, America has attracted resolute nomads willing to accept uncertainty in order to breathe the fresh air of freedom and possibility.
Nowhere is American optimism more visible than in the country’s love and devotion to capitalism and free markets. The storybook of American business is filled with both spectacular successes and glorious failures. Americans strive and thrive when the risk is high and the future unknown. Take Chuck Bundrant, for example. In 1961, he was a college freshman with $80 in his pocket when he drove from Tennessee to Seattle to earn a little money fishing. Bundrant knew nothing about fishing, fishing boats or catching and processing fish — he had only heard there was money to be made on the fishing grounds in Alaska, and he set out to try his luck.
He made his way to Bristol Bay, Alaska, where he slept on the docks and took any work he could get. Bundrant and two partners saved up a small amount of capital and in 1973 built their own fishing and processing boat. This was the first vessel of its kind — featuring onboard equipment so fresh catches could be processed immediately — and ended up revolutionizing the seafood processing industry. Today, Bundrant’s company Trident Seafoods provides fish to McDonald’s, Costco, Safeway and Burger King and is one of the largest seafood companies in North America. This success has propelled Bundrant onto the Forbes 400 list.
Optimism in the face of uncertainty drives capital investment and is woven into the fabric of what makes America great. It is absolutely no coincidence that most of the world’s greatest inventions — from the light bulb, to the airplane, to the computer, to the Polio vaccine, to the iPhone — arose from American ingenuity and the entrepreneurial spirit of its people. A population with no hope is not very inventive. But a people armed with optimism and dreams can stumble off into the void of uncertainty and invent great things.
The 330 million Americans today are a diverse group of people with extremely varied views on politics, business and society, yet many continue to carry that ambitious hope, spirit and vision of a better future. America has a culture that celebrates new ideas and risk-taking, and its people are some of the hardest working, most entrepreneurial and most innovative in the world. That spirit will surely lead to the creation of great new companies that we have not yet heard of, created by founders that we will only get to know in the future. They will invent products that we did not even know we needed.
In his April 1961 address to Congress, President John F. Kennedy committed America to the audacious goal of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth by the end of the decade. This ambition advanced rapidly from a lofty idea to “one giant leap for mankind” in only eight frantic years. While the endeavor proved costly, the “space race” saw America at its very best — bold, confident, competitive, innovative and cooperative. 400,000 men and women worked for the Apollo program during the 1960s, and each was burdened by the understanding that one small mistake could doom the mission and end lives. During that period, the United States dreamed big and dared greatly. Even the sky itself was not a limit.
Our collective American future is as uncertain as the lives of those Apollo 8 astronauts as they sat on the launchpad, waiting to autograph their own chapter in the history books. Only by daring greatly and working together can we pursue endless possibilities where others only see the inevitability of the status quo. What will our world look like ten years from now? I have no idea. And we should not want it any other way.
