NYT - Neil Armstrong's Death, and a Stormy, Secret $6 Million Settlement

[hunter]

6. God Bless America!

There are so many issues here I'm often speechless.

I could write three scalding essays about U.S. American Exceptionalism in response, about our medicine (no, ours is not the best), about our legal system (no, ours is not the best), and one about manned space exploration beyond low earth orbit (no, it's a bad idea.)

Nevertheless, I am tangled up in all three.

My wife and I have enjoyed many hours these past nine days reliving Apollo 11 as it happened fifty years ago -- watching the launch, watching Armstrong and Aldrin walk on the moon, watching the splashdown this morning, and recounting all the dramas in between.

Armstrong had faith in the American dream, as fantastical as that was, look at all those white guys smoking cigars and waving flags in Mission Control, but he had one hell of a ride.

We are all test pilots of our own lives, but he was one of the greats.

In the end we all crash and burn.