By Larry Berz
Fifty-six years ago, a tiny metallic grapefruit literally rocketed out of central Russia to change and challenge our national self-concept and security.
The orbit of Sputnik compelled a rather complacent American society to re-examine its purposes and vision. Within four years, a new American president proclaimed a new, energetic objective to measure the best of our energies and skills, electrifying a new generation of Americans with the prize of a newly defined greatness for all of us.
Now, nearly 50 years after the death and murder of that New England leader, his hopes still rest within our uncertain hearts and minds. The “New Frontier” never originated as a purely partisan slogan within the traditional rivalry between Republican and Democratic ambitions. No, it rather heralded and articulated a state of mind reflecting the new found muscle of American technology, economy and globalism, backed up by centuries of evolving American prayer, power, exploration and self-discovery.
President Kennedy chose to challenge and test our individual and collective resolve to stand up and say where we stood and define our freedom, opportunity, hope and peace in an active life for all American men, women, and children. His liberalism was a true and potent testimony, fulfilling that unique American need for leadership and courage. Self-satisfaction must yield in the face of unprecedented resources and ideological challenge, set within the frame of apocalyptic dimensions of nuclear warfare.
Today, we face a strange and brave new world as Americans grapple with the restoration of its original purposes as an experiment both in liberty and democracy. Our ongoing economic quagmire drains our best efforts toward excellence. Our sense of self-worth and integrity seems obscured by shutdown in governmental function, weakened family solidarity, and narrowness or absence of vision.
Astronomy popularizer Neil de Grasse Tyson exclaims that the fault rests with leadership that no longer fuels and nurtures the ability of Americans to dream about tomorrow. In its eagerness for meeting a limited economic index and achieve political leverage, our government no longer places priorities with appropriating the funding to those national organizations (NASA, for example) which feed our dreams to help create the world of tomorrow. We discovered this pattern in the light of Cold War realities where Americans were galvanized by the need to not only go to the Moon, but to, on a larger scale, set in motion the careers and industries to define “The New Frontier” in our daily lives. Those were towering challenges largely and intelligently addressed to a listening constituency.
My own personal achievements in recently completing long distance, one-day expeditionary hikes of 40, 50, and again 40 miles this July, August and October, stand as a cry to all of us to recover our personal best by re-establishing the vigorous life in manners accessible to all. The hikes do not require high technology from the Silicon Valley, advance educational recognition from Stanford University, or luxurious personal resources retail catalogs. The hikes fly in the face of conventional American success. They stand for sanctified trials for reflection of our personal and collective purposes. This unique period in American history compels the sensitive searchers among us to consider and count the costs of our current cultural patterns.
There is yet still time to engage in this process. There is still time before global and national circumstances as well as intentional public policy lead us into the Dark Zone best and chillingly described by the late Carl Sagan: “I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time — when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of the very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.”
I know not what others now may think, say, or do, but as for me, I am convinced Sagan’s sage sensibility is entirely accurate and quickly coming to pass within this lifetime and that of our children and grandchildren.
In October, 1957, a young man from the hills of West Virginia saw Sputnik’s nightly trail and recognized a compelling, unquenchable need to follow that star and so doing, achieve his own destiny. Howard Hickam’s rocket boys were celebrated in a popular film, beloved by many movie-goers. But the real “October Skies” is right above your head and mine in Aroostook County. Right now!
So I am walking the walk, as they say, and recharging my spiritual batteries at the same time. The battle cry of freedom thunders again. And it sounds for all time, defining our personal best. A voice for “New Fronter” attitudes must come forth and I accept that responsibility in my own unique manner on your behalf. I do not, thankfully, need election to public or political office to fulfill that commission. I am just going to march for now and proclaim these truths as best as my feet permit.
To that end, I am leaving and leading a Phase VII, 30-mile long distance walking expedition from Mars Hill to Limestone on Saturday, Nov. 2nd from 5 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. approximately. The training and liability for that endeavor rests within your voice and choice. This trail appeals to the young in heart, regardless of age, to the stout in spirit regardless of politics, to all who answer to a scriptural call, “Be strong and courageous. Be not afraid, neither be dismayed.”
Are you willing to join me, north to Fort Kent and south to Houlton — east to Fort Fairfield and west to Ashland and the Allagash in a grand County collaboration which can serve as a more fruitful life for all us citizens and “spudniks”? Will you join me in that great historic effort? Any interested heart or mind may contact the New Frontier Expeditionary Corps at (207) 488-5451 or (207) 325-3303 and ask to speak to L.W. “Bubbleboy” Berz, Commander. Let’s roll, County!
Larry Berz of Caribou is director of Easton’s Francis Malcolm Planetarium and astronomy instructor at the Maine School of Science and Mathematics.
