Last man on the moon laid to rest, nearly forgotten by history

Between the time of this writing and its publication, America will lay to rest one of the 12 men who have walked on the moon.
Gene Cernan was the 11th person to set foot on the moon and the last one to leave a footprint there. He died Jan. 16 at the age of 82. Yet most people today don’t know who he is or the significance of what he accomplished. His funeral was held Tuesday at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Houston. News of his passing and coverage of his funeral were overshadowed by the inauguration of President Donald Trump and the riots, marches and protests that stalked it.
Please allow me to put things into historical perspective for those of you who were too caught up in current events to notice the passing of a great man who is not just an American treasure but a global historical figure whose place in history has not yet been fully appreciated.
There have been 58 inaugurations of the 45 Presidents (not counting the nine extraordinary inaugurations of Presidents who took office due to the death or resignation of their predecessor). Compare that to the 24 men who have gone to the moon and the dozen who have walked on it. Of those 12, only six remain. Can you name them? Would you even recognize them if you walked by them on the street?
Sending men to the moon and returning them safely to the earth is unquestionably mankind’s greatest achievement. Those brave men who rose to the challenge and accomplished the seemingly impossible should be remembered as household names and enshrined in history books for eternity. Yet most of them have lived fairly obscure lives since Cernan, Ron Evans and Harrison Schmitt returned from the moon in December of 1972.
Most people will recognize the names of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin as the first and second men to walk on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission. Armstrong, who shunned notoriety, passed away in 2012. Aldrin, at age 87, remains America’s most enthusiastic ambassador to space and is an unabashed advocate for sending humans to Mars.
What about the other 10? Of them, five have died: James Irwin (Apollo 15) in 1991, Alan Shepherd (Apollo 14) in 1998, Pete Conrad (Apollo 12) in 1999, Edgar Mitchell (Apollo 14) in 2016 and Cernan (Apollo 17) in 2017. The surviving moonwalkers include Aldrin, Alan Bean (Apollo 12), 84; David Scott (Apollo 15), 84; John Young (Apollo 16), 86; Charles Duke (Apollo 16), 81; and Schmitt (Apollo 17), 81. Of the six still alive, three live in Texas – Bean and Young in the Houston area and Duke in New Braunfels. Three of the 12 moonwalkers were born in Texas – Bean, Mitchell and Scott.
Cernan was born in Chicago in 1934. He graduated from Purdue University in 1956 and entered the Navy where he became a naval aviator (he retired a captain) and earned his master’s degree in aeronautical engineering. He was selected by NASA in its third astronaut group. He made his rookie trip to space on Gemini 9A with Tom Stafford on June 3-6, 1966. He was accompanied by Stafford and Young on his second flight, Apollo 10, which orbited the moon in the final dress rehearsal for the first moon landing. The flight took place May 18-26, 1969 and Cernan served as the lunar module pilot. Three years later from Dec. 7-19, 1972, Cernan was the commander of Apollo 17, the last manned flight to the moon. He and Schmitt spent a record three days on the moon while Evans orbited above in the command module.
Cernan is one of only three men to make two trips to the moon. He and Young both walked on it and Jim Lovell orbited it twice, first on Apollo 8, the first manned mission to the moon, and again on Apollo 13, the mission that had to abort a landing following an explosion shortly after launch.
On the moon, Cernan and Schmitt performed three extra-vehicular activities (EVA) totaling 22 hours exploring the moon’s Taurus-Littrow valley. The two men traveled about 22 miles on three different excursions in the lunar rover and spent a lot of time collecting samples and placing experiments. The mission set several records, including the longest moon landing, longest total moonwalks, largest lunar sample and the longest time in lunar orbit. (Cernan holds the lunar speed record of 11.2 mph.)
Cernan followed Schmitt into the lunar module after the last EVA, but before he did, he paused to say the final words spoken by man from the surface of the moon:
“Bob, this is Gene, and I’m on the surface; and, as I take man’s last step from the surface, back home for some time to come – but we believe not too long into the future – I’d like to just (say) what I believe history will record: that America’s challenge of today has forged man’s destiny of tomorrow. And, as we leave the moon at Taurus–Littrow, we leave as we came and, God willing, as we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind. Godspeed the crew of Apollo 17.”
Cernan didn’t live long enough to see man return to the moon. Given the current state of affairs, it is unlikely any of the moonwalkers will see the day when humans follow in their footsteps. That may not be a bad thing, however, if we can forge on and place footprints on Mars and other worlds.
Surely the first adventurers to reach the Red Planet will be remembered among the great explorers of Earth. I just hope they will be remembered with greater reverence and dignity than these 24 brave men who broke the bonds of our planet and journeyed forth on the greatest adventure in human history.
Godspeed Gene Cernan.

Actors should keep politics out of award shows

I didn’t watch the Golden Globes when they were on television a couple weeks ago.
I didn’t even know they were on. Not that it matters; I wouldn’t have watched anyway. I did hear about it, though. Social media was on fire with reports about how Meryl Streep went on a political rant against President-elect Donald Trump. This is why I have such a hard time watching award shows.
Hollywood celebrities seem to think that any time they have a public platform they need to use it to express some social or political agenda. The Oscars are particularly notable for this.
As a staunch defender of the First Amendment, I don’t decry anyone’s right to have their voice heard. When it comes to Hollywood, however, I think it’s time for a change of venue. The people who make movies and television programs already have a powerful voice and an unmitigated influence over their audiences and beyond. Their movies or television programs are often used to directly or subtly convey their message.
When it comes to award shows, however, these same people lose their focus. The purpose of an awards program is to bestow honor and gratitude upon those who are the best at their craft. It’s a time to be thankful and appreciative. It is not a time or place to be pushing a personal agenda.
Streep and the thousands of others like her in Hollywood have numerous ways of expressing their personal viewpoints. An awards program should be limited to things pertinent to the award. If she wants to express her feelings about Trump, let her do it in private interviews or on news programs. She can take to social media or blog about it. Please keep it out of the award programs.
When I do make the time to watch an award show, I am interested in seeing who wins. I like when the winners talk about what the award means to them and maybe some insight about what it took to earn the award. I really don’t want to hear about their fight against social injustice. I want to be entertained, not propagandized.
Conversely, I wouldn’t want to go to a city council or school board meeting and have an elected official talk about their favorite movie or TV program. I want them to talk about the issues. If a mayor wants to express his or her viewpoint on the latest Hollywood blockbuster, there are venues other than the city council meeting to do that. Can you imagine what it would be like if Trump used his inauguration speech to criticize one of Streep’s performances? It would be totally out of place. It’s no different than Streep using her acceptance speech at the Golden Globes to criticize Trump.
Let’s keep things in perspective. There is a time and place for everything. Awards shows are not the place for politics and social agendas. Unfortunately, Hollywood doesn’t seem to understand this.
We put these people on an enormous pedestal and heap billions of dollars of cash and flow endless accolades at them. I don’t think the human ego was designed to handle that volume of attention. After a while they become too self-important and feel the need to try and make the world a better place by using the platform they have been given. They forget that they are on multiple platforms and that they do not have to pontificate from each one.
Unfortunately, celebrities have been behaving this way for so long at awards programs that it has become more of a norm than an exception. We have idolized these people to a degree that we seem to think they are wise leaders. They’re not; they’re actors and their purpose is to entertain, not lead. If they want to lead then they should do it, but in the appropriate arena. Many actors have been successful in politics, including Ronald Reagan, Clint Eastwood, Arnold Schwarzenegger and so on. They have been successful because they have been able to separate politics from entertainment. It would be nice if the Streeps of this world would learn to do the same.

Speaking of Hollywood
OK, rant over. As long as we’re talking about Hollywood, I want to bring your attention to a great movie now in theaters. I took my family the other day to see Hidden Figures. What a great film!
In all fairness, this movie is very preachy about the way blacks and women have been treated by the white male establishment. The movie, however, goes much deeper than that. It is inspiring to see that anyone can overcome anything to achieve their dreams.
Hidden Figures is the story of three black women who brought about social changes in the early days of NASA in 1961-62. They didn’t change NASA through protest but through persistence and being the best at what they do. It’s a lesson many people – and millennials in particular – need to learn. You will do a better job of changing attitudes through your actions than your words. It’s one thing to say that segregation was wrong; it’s another to prove it.
Hidden Figures also speaks to us today. It sheds light on a lot of the social injustice that has spurred the Black Lives Matter movement. It demonstrates that Hollywood can seek to address social injustice through the movies it makes and not by placing its actors on a soapbox.

Smoking is stupid and brings out the worst in people

You’re driving down the road when all of a sudden a shower of sparks erupts alongside the car in front of you.
Perhaps you’re walking through a public place when someone nearby blows a cloud of smoke (or vapor) out their mouth and smugly takes another drag.
Those little eruptions cause volcanic flashes of anger inside of me. Smoking is one of my biggest pet peeves. (For the record, when I talk about smoking, I’m including vaping, e-cigs, joints and any and every other form of recreational inhalant.)
I don’t know what bothers me more, the violation of having vile, smelly pollutants involuntarily forced upon me, or the arrogant, uncaring selfishness of the smoker. I’m a very character-driven person and I find smokers to be seriously lacking in that regard. I was subjected to second-hand smoke throughout my childhood and early adult years. I hate it and I hate what it did to me. I hate seeing what smoking does to people. I got into many heated arguments about smokers “rights” over the years, mostly with people in positions of authority over me. Fortunately, the laws have been on my side and supported my position and my rights.
I fear, however, that the pendulum is beginning to swing back the other way and that has me gravely concerned. From the growing trend of artificial cigarettes – e-cigs, vaping, etc. – to the state-by-state push to legalize the recreational use of marijuana, we are seeing smoking making a major comeback at a time when, ideally, it should be eradicated.
I fail to understand why anyone would even consider starting that nasty habit. There isn’t a person in this country who hasn’t been taught from an early age that all smoking and tobacco use is bad for you. The link to cancer, emphysema and many other diseases and health problems is indisputable. Children who are subjected to second-hand smoke are at greater risk of illness such as SIDS, asthma and allergies. The addictive nature of tobacco and the extreme difficulty in breaking its grasp are well documented and profound. So why anyone would even think of trying it is beyond me.
In order to start smoking, it means you are wantonly ignoring not only the health risks to yourself, but also your loved ones and others around you. That is an intensely selfish character trait. In many cases, people take their first puff because they have caved in to peer pressure. Being a weak-willed follower is just another character flaw in smokers. There are some who try it out of curiosity to know what it’s like. Curiosity is understandable, but you don’t have to pee on an electric fence to know it’s a bad idea.
When I say that smokers are selfish, I mean it. There is only one person in the room who derives any kind of pleasure out of smoking and that’s the person doing it. It is of no benefit at all to anyone, including the smoker. In fact, it’s an irritant. It subjects everyone else to the harmful effects of second-hand smoke. It stinks and the odor lingers on people and things long after the cigarette has been extinguished. It’s also rude to make everyone around you suffer with that disgusting filth just because you want to satiate a selfish desire for a nicotine fix.
Smokers are so caught up in themselves that they don’t stop to think about how their habit affects others, even beyond second-hand smoke. Their little five- and 10-minute smoke breaks affect production at work. So does the time they lose due to illness that is directly or indirectly related to smoking. When they are not doing their job, it means some else is picking up the slack or stuck waiting on the smoker. It also means family members are sacrificing their own time to aid and comfort the ailing smoker, which has its own domino affect on society and the economy.
Whenever a smoker undergoes medical treatment for cancer or other smoking-related illness, the cumulative affect is increased medical expenses for everyone. Insurance costs go up because it costs more to cover what is essentially a preventable disease.
In case you haven’t noticed, smokers are responsible for 100 percent of all cigarette butts littering the ground. Cigarette butts are one of the largest sources of litter in the country. They are further proof that smokers are self-centered because they do not care enough to clean up after themselves and leave their mess for others to deal with.
The claim that cigarette butts are biodegradable and quickly decompose doesn’t hold a drop of water with me. I have spent countless hours cleaning up roadsides, trails and waterways and know better. Cigarette butts can and will last for years. I fail to see how discarded butts benefit anyone other than the selfish litterbug.
If there is any remote upside to cigarettes, it’s the high taxes on them. That’s a voluntary tax paid by smokers and the money helps the economy. On the other hand, the money smokers spend on their habit is lost to them and can’t be used to the betterment of their lives or the lives of their families. It’s literally money gone up in smoke.
If this rant of mine seems harsh, it’s meant to be. Smoking is harsh and cruel. At this point there are probably a lot of readers who agree with me and are sharing this column with friends and family because I have put into print what they have been feeling or saying all along.
There are others who probably want to kick my teeth in and stab out a thousand cigarette butts on my carcass for calling them selfish and weak-willed because they choose to smoke. So be it. Just keep in mind that what I’ve said here mirrors reality and if there is something you’re reading here that you don’t like, it’s because I’ve reflected the light of truth on an ugly side of your personality.
There are two things that have caused me to write this at this time. The first is that we are still close to New Year’s and if you have made a resolution to quit smoking, I want you to know you have my full encouragement and support. Secondly, I am really worried about the push across the nation to approve recreational use of marijuana. Everything I have said about cigarettes applies to marijuana and more.
Not only does marijuana bring with it the same problems as cigarettes, but it also means the smoker is probably buzzed or stoned. If you think drunk driving is a problem, this is worse. Not only are we at risk from drivers who are not in complete control of their faculties, but these same people are cogs in the wheels that move society and run our economy. If you have a worker trying to operate machinery or a manager making multi-million dollar decisions under the influence, you’re only inviting disaster. It also negatively impacts your ability to parent and relate with others, including your spouse, family members and employers.
That’s why I feel that we must not only uphold our marijuana laws, but we need to add teeth to them and increase their enforcement. Anything we can do to discourage all smoking is to the benefit of society and is worth pursuing, including banning all artificial smoking in places where smoking is already prohibited. To do anything less is a moral and ethical failure.

Fed up with 2016? Make this year and the rest of your life better

There are many people who are glad to have 2016 behind them.
I am not one of those people. Last year was a great year for me. From the Denver Broncos and the Sugar Land Skeeters winning their respective championships and being able to cover the Houston Texans to having a great, new job here at the Fort Bend Star and making a lot of new friends, this year has been one that I don’t want to soon forget.
I have a feeling 2017 will be even better. It can be for all of us. There are a lot of things each one of us can do to make sure our lives are much improved by the end of next December. But why wait that long? There are several simple things you can do right now to improve the quality of your life before January passes into the history books.
Since many of you are probably still in the mode of making and breaking New Year’s resolutions, here are some things you can do right now that will make your life better in 2017 and beyond:
1. Quit! Stop doing the things that are bad for you. Quit smoking. Quit drinking alcohol. Quit consuming sodas (regular and diet). Quit eating sugary foods and things made of white flour (go whole grain). Quit, or at least decrease, your consumption of caffeinated beverages. Quit complaining. Quit swearing and using foul language. Quit or drastically reduce time spent watching TV and playing video games. Most importantly, quit worrying. Don’t stress over things you cannot control.
2. Start! Get out there and start exercising. Start taking regular walks. Start keeping a diary. Start eating healthy foods. Start volunteering in your community. Start reading more books. Start going to bed earlier and getting adequate sleep.
3. Get out of debt! This won’t happen quickly but it won’t happen at all if you don’t make a start. For the absolute best advice, visit www.daveramsey.com. Dave Ramsey has a seven-step plan to guide you out of debt and into wealth. The best part is you don’t have to make a lot of money to be successful with money. Don’t just take my word for it; visit the website and see for yourself today.
4. Be nice! Last year was brutal on the social front. We saw a resurgence in racism. We slogged through a presidential election campaign that further divided America politically. People seemed to automatically label anyone who disagreed with their perspective as a hater. Stop hating/labeling people who disagree with you and respect them the way you would like them to respect you and your opinions. You can disagree without being disagreeable. Practice random acts of kindness. Do something nice for someone just because you can.
5. Engage! Be an active participant in your life. Put down your cell phone or tablet and be active in the world around you. As the saying goes, there are those who make things happen, those who watch things happen and those who wonder what happened. (Hint: If your cell phone guides your life, you’re probably not in the first category.) Make eye contact and smile at the people around you. If you’re a next-step kind of person, say hello – speak to people directly. Insane, right? Yeah, I know!
6. Make a plan! As the saying goes, a goal without a plan is just a wish (or a dream). Be sure to put it in writing. If you want to lose weight, write down how much weight and set a deadline. Then make a written plan for how you will achieve it. The same thing goes for writing a book, learning a musical instrument, refurbishing an old car, planting a garden, building a deck or learning a second language. Make a plan in writing, schedule it and then take action.
7. Just do it! What are your goals, dreams and ambitions? What’s stopping you from achieving them? If you have the ability and desire to do something – just do it! If you don’t yet have the ability, make a plan and develop the skill. According to the late Zig Ziglar, you do not have to be great to start but you do have to start to be great.
8. Put others first! Humans are innately selfish beings. Learning to sacrifice your own self-interests for the sake of others is extremely unnatural but even more rewarding. If you want a better marriage, put the needs and desires of your spouse before your own. Guys, if you were willing to climb mountains and slay dragons to win your mate, why stop? Is the love of your life no longer worth the fight just because you have her? Keep winning her every day. She’s worth it! If you want great kids, play with them. Want a better job? Be better at your job! If your boss doesn’t notice, you can bet his competitor will. To quote Ziglar again, “You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.”
9. Give! In Acts 20:35 we are told that it is more blessed to give than receive. That is supported in 2 Corinthians 9:6-7: “Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” You don’t have to be a Christian to know that life is better when you help make the lives of others better. Give of your time and resources whenever you can.
10. Believe! This is paramount and central to everything I am and ever will be. Believe God and accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. It is the most important thing anyone can do. I realize there are many people of other faiths and no faith reading this, but I would be remiss and dishonoring to my own faith if I said and did nothing. There is plenty of research out there that shows that people of faith – those who believe in a higher power or supreme being – are often happier and more content with their lives. Isn’t that something all of us want?
I’ve given you a lot of things to contemplate in these 10 steps. I do not advise attempting them all at once. It will overwhelm you and probably result in frustration and failure. Just consider each of these and figure out what works best for you and make a start. As you get comfortable with the positive changes in your life, take on more. You’ll become a better person and probably have a better year. At the very least you’ll be better equipped to handle the challenges that life brings.