This coming Saturday, July 20, is the 55th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. The beginning of the Space Age began on October 4, 1957, with the Soviet Union’s launch of the first earth-orbiting satellite, Sputnik 1. Sputnik 1 was a silver sphere about two feet in diameter. It completed an orbit around the earth approximately every hour and a half. Its only function was to transmit periodic beeps as it traveled in low-earth orbit.
Today this doesn’t sound like a big deal. But imagine you are there in 1957 and this is the first time something like this has ever occurred. You tune in to news reports on the radio and hear Sputnik’s beeps. There’s already an emerging threat from the Soviets, and now they've taken the first step to ultimate domination of the skies. This is scary.
The United States foray into the Space Race began with a series of failures. Ballistic missiles were chosen as the delivery system for our space program. These missiles were more likely to explode on the launch pad than to become airborne. It would be nearly four months before the United States would successfully launch its first object into earth’s orbit. Explorer 1 was launched on January 31, 1958.
The next milestone in the Space Race would be to put a man into space and return him safely to earth. Once again, the Soviet Union was the first country to succeed. On April 12,1961, Yuri Gagarin’s Vostok 1 spacecraft propelled him into orbit. Gagarin completed one orbit of the earth and returned to earth. Yet, his return was not without issue. A failure in the spacecraft caused Gagarin to eject and parachute to the ground as his spacecraft crashed..
A mere three weeks after Alan Shepard became the first American in space for a May 5, 1961 sub-orbital flight, President John F. Kennedy issued a gargantuan challenge. President Kennedy set the goal of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth before the end of the 1960s. Keep in mind Alan Shepard did not complete a single orbit. His flight lasted a mere 15 minutes at an altitude of 115 miles. To put it in perspective, it’s 123 miles from Joplin, Mo. to Lebanon, Mo. and the drive can be completed in an hour and 45 minutes. President Kennedy challenged the U.S. to send a man nearly 240,000 miles to the moon, land on the surface, exit the landing craft and walk around, and safely return to Earth in less than 9 years. Sounds crazy, doesn’t it?
Well, we did it. On July 16,1969, Apollo 11 was launched from Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center to begin the journey to the moon. Astronauts Neal Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin and Michael Collins spent the next four days traveling to the moon. On July 20, Neal Armstrong made his now-famous announcement, “Houston, Tranquility Base, here. The Eagle has landed.” Step 1 of the journey had been completed. A few hours later, clearance was given by NASA Mission Control in Houston, Texas to exit the Lunar Lander and walk on the surface of the moon.
Armstrong descended the Lunar Lander’s ladder and stepped on the moon. He commemorated this moment by saying, “That’s one small step for (a) man. One giant leap for mankind.” We beat the Russians to the moon and regained the lead in the Space Race. The second step had been achieved.
Armstrong and Aldrin reboarded the Lunar Module, blasted off the moon’s surface to rejoin Michael Collins in the Command Module and begin their journey back to earth. Four days later, the Apollo 11 crew splashed down in the Pacific Ocean. All three astronauts returned to earth safely and Step 3 of the mission was fulfilled. The United States embraced President Kennedy’s challenge and in eight years had achieved his objective. What a tremendous achievement!
We Americans have a history of setting a seemingly insurmountable goal and achieving that goal through hard work, ingenuity, industriousness and good fortune.
But what if we applied the same effort and commitment to holding the first of many Article V convention of states meetings?
We already have the plan. The Framers of the Constitution provided it to us when they unanimously approved the process and added it to the U.S. Constitution. We do have to fill in the blanks by each state establishing the process of selecting commissioners, setting the agenda of the meeting and drafting amendments to propose. Other than that, we have the process.
So, what is missing?
What’s missing is the courage and conviction to use the tool that has been provided to us. We have acted in Missouri and in 18 other states. In fact, we’ve passed the resolution in the Missouri Legislature twice – once in 2017 and a second time in 2021! Our task is to help other states pass our resolution to achieve the 34-state constitutional threshold to hold an Article V meeting.
Due to term limits, we have approximately 60 new legislators who are sworn into office every other January. This next January will be no different. We need to educate these legislators about Article V and develop relationships as self-governing citizens. We need to cultivate those relationships now.
Third, we must educate our friends, neighbors and communities about the convention of states process. When proposed amendments are returned to the states, the citizens of every state must be knowledgeable enough to evaluate each proposal and push good amendments through ratification.
Do you believe government officials in Washington D.C. will voluntarily hand over decision-making ability back to the states?
Do you believe government officials will voluntarily leave their jobs after a certain period of time?
Do you believe government officials will voluntarily choose to spend less of our hard-earned money?
Of course they won’t. That’s why the states must act. That’s why grassroots citizens like you and me must demand this accountability and return to constitutional government. Convention of States Action is the platform to bring this about. Amendments can be proposed under our resolution to answer each of the above questions. Join us at www.conventionofstates.com and learn how you can help achieve the biggest challenge of our lifetime – restoring our constitutional republic.
In liberty,
Brett
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