A Long Road Ahead

When I walked into the "Hawkeye in Space" gallery, I didn't know what to expect. Sure, the common things can be expected, such as some general information about space technology and University of Iowa's participation in past space missions. But I had major doubt about if I could find any "shocking" information that I would remember for a long time...

And then there it was.

A simple news paper clip from the Chicago daily on February 1st, 1958. How could an old newspaper clip be anything shocking? Well, the individual content on it was old news indeed. I was not excited because I found some hardcore evidence of some controversial recording there. I was simply amazed by what people read about back then. The whole front page contained nothing but scientific discoveries and exciting news about progress. Beyond that, when I looked at the photo of the three scientists, I could tell and feel their immense happiness and sense of achievement due to their deeds. I saw a kind of smile that I almost never saw today, like our happiness has been locked away and buried deep with all the propaganda junk we read day in and day out.

Once my thinking went there, I just couldn't pull it back. How in the world could they be so happy? Was it because they made a science break through? Society today makes profound scientific break through at a way faster pace than 60 years ago. We are even talking about becoming inter-planet with Elon Musk's "crazy talks". We can even edit our DNA with fancy technology such as "crispr". Hell, Silicon Valley!

To be fair, those cutting edge developments are not meant for everyone. Space-X's ticket to Mars has a $200,000 minimum price tag, and few would dare to edit their DNA after all. Besides, how many can truly make it to Silicon Valley anyway? But if that is the argument, then shouldn't rocket science be even more out of touch for ordinary people 60 years ago? Maybe I was delusional, but I was certain that the journalists wrote their reports on Chicago Daily News about those scientific breakthrough with great pride. They felt it was an honor. They were proud of the nation's achievement.

They felt it as if they were part of it!

There, that is the problem. The people back then had hopes. They had hopes and trust, that the society would utilize the scientific advancement to make their life better. So even if the technology was out of touch for ordinary folks, it could still be cheered nationwide as a promising sign for a better tomorrow, cause back then, "we were in this together".

And I say that in the past tense, for we all know, it is no longer the truth. That, is a profound, sad moment of realization. Our scientific advancement might have been strong, but our path to unity is still far before done.