I am a teacher by profession and a peculiar one at that. Somehow, I assume a serious responsibility, as a planetarium educator, of interpreting and communicating our astronomical connection to the Universe regardless of age and persuasion. That remains a role of which I cherish across the vale of now some 50 years of personal and professional development.
For me, study and learning always remained embracing and desirable. The dignity of my scientific course seems as necessary as breathing.
For at least 400 years, astronomical science, mathematics, and related technology disclosed and revealed the most wonderful, beautiful, and awe inspiring understanding of the cosmos. This exponential increase in our awareness of our place in space also added new strength to our human need for freedom as well as personal and collective dignity. The quest for democratic institutions and social justice grew accordingly. The intimate telescopic and exploratory knowledge of our solar system planets alone gives better definition to the greater questions of “where we are” and “who we are.”
Our social ambitions and even our very language all grew in richness and maturity. The boundaries which contained human history began to grow outward transcending traditions with a powerful universal consensus. All parents thus became transmitters of the new heritage to our children. All of us, regardless of our backgrounds and training, should take considerable pride in those achievements.
Regrettably, I hear no voice of leadership defending this … let alone understanding it or communicating it to the people among today’s candidates. The last truly scientific resident to occupy the White House, Thomas Jefferson, worked in his slippers two centuries ago.
Therefore, I now become the voice of leadership, self-appointed, in this educational arena. I am relieved; I no longer need to wait for the right man or woman to uphold what I know as the cultural necessities of a nation unafraid of both science and mathematics as applied to the realities of the astronomical Universe.
We stand here today within untold, unexplored opportunities to uplift astronomy to all the people. That issue, that alone, motivates me to move my community towards the light of the stars, to maintain the old mission of bringing light to a dark world.
Lawrence “Larry” Berz, planetarium director and coordinator of the The Francis Malcolm Science Center, welcomes readers to the upcoming Saturday, November 5th program at 7 p.m. remembering and reflecting upon the great 1975 UFO mystery at Loring Air Force Base. An additional planetarium digital program on the importance of telescopes will also be given. For more information, call the Science Center at (207) 488-5451.
