On this day in 1969, human beings landed on the moon.
On that momentous day, I was 7 years old. Below is the house we lived in then. I vividly remember standing by myself on the sidewalk in front of this house and looking up at the moon hanging in the clear California night sky and marveling that in all of time, in all of forever, right now, for the very first time ever, there were people standing on the moon. There were people on the moon! My God! Anything is possible!
My dad, to me (then and now) the smartest and kindest man in the world, had been a naval flight surgeon, and he was ridiculously proud of his fellow naval aviators who comprised most of the
#Apollo astronauts, so we followed the program closely.
At that time, I attended an integrated public grade school where I quickly figured out that I was the second smartest kid in my class, and that the smartest kid was a Black girl named Anita, meaning I never could believe that women or Black people weren't as good as white male me. And that's even though I won my grade in the citywide science fair two years running, which is a big deal because the government was pouring tons of money into science education (and of course I had no idea that my good education, and Apollo, were byproducts of the arms race).
I was too young to really be aware of the Vietnam War, let alone in danger of being drafted into it. And the music was fantastic, of course. (My favorites were "Love is Blue" and "Up Up and Away.")
The great, campy "Batman" TV show had ended only the year before. The hyper-optimistic "Star Trek" had ended only the month before (and no one realized it wasn't just the usual summer hiatus).
And I also didn't realize yet that my parents were about to divorce.
You can see why
#GenJones felt almost uniquely hopeful about things, and why I think we may be more engaged than some of the people near us in age. We *know* that there is a better way, that it's actually possible, because we actually were *living* it for a little while; and because we learned early that anything is possible – that we even can put people on the moon! – we also know that someday we *will* find our way back to that better path.
Because you beautiful young people, and the children who will follow you, deserve nothing less. These are scary times, but I believe we can find our way back. I couldn't draw another breath if I didn't believe that. And like the visionaries in 1961 who said we would stand on the moon by the end of the decade, I'll never stop working to ensure that my belief comes true.
