It's been a long road ...

As today is the season premiere for Star Trek: Enterprise, and I'll confess
I am a trekkie, the theme song and opening credits keep coming to mind:

"It's been a long road, getting from there to here ..."

I found a column that is feels appropriate for today.

http://www.partialobserver.com/Artic...?ArticleID=632, which I
will repost below:

I wish it wasn't taking so long to get to "there".

Jon

------------------------------

It's Been A Long Road
Tragedies on the Journey to the Future.

by Jonathan Wilson
February 1, 2003

Five men and two women, representing the aspirations of three nations and
most of the civilized world, have perished today while taking the risks that
the future requires. Pondering the tragedy, I recall the opening words to
the theme of Star Trek: Enterprise, "It's been a long road getting from
there to here..."

The long road has perils as well. When seven astronauts die, adding to the
list of fatalities that stretch back to 1986 and 1968, we might ponder the
meaning and purpose of it all. We wonder why God allows mechanical failures.
We wonder if the journey to near space is worth the money and the risk to
life.

Pessimists in my generation--the GenX post-moderns who are now grown-up and
working and teaching at universities, talk about the "myth of progress."
Have these technologies and space travel really made life better?

The answer is, of course, that life is better and progress is not a myth in
the nations that have moved forward. Those who would want to trade the
median American lifestyle for the lifestyle of 1850, with sky-high infant
mortality and average life-expectancy around 45, are crazy.

It is complacency regarding this lifestyle that causes the crisis of meaning
and leads to the conclusion that progress is a myth and a failure. People
who are saturated with materialism tend to be nihilists: It was as true in
ancient Rome as it is today. The problem with complacency and nihilism is
that it leads to risk aversion.

We forget that necessity is the mother of invention; that genius is 90%
perspiration; that suffering is the catalyst to change. Those who have
everything and see reality only in the terms of being born with an
entitlement to comfort, are the ones who conclude that risk and progress are
meaningless.

Despite these pessimists, there are people ready and willing to take the
risks that progress into the future require. The tragedy today cuts deep,
because we value the heroes who move us forward and realize that when they
perish, they die for all of us.

However, their deaths are not meaningless nor in vain. People will continue
to work to improve processes and technologies which will have the effect of
making these tragedies in space even more rare than they already are.

It's a long road, and dangerous. It is also meaningful, even necessary, that
we follow this road where risk is embraced and heroes are both celebrated
and mourned.

Thank you, NASA. Keep it up. My great-great-grandchildren are depending on
you.

About the Author:
Jonathan Wilson is a pastor in an evangelical church in Chicago.

Jon Berndt wrote:

snip
The long road has perils as well. When seven astronauts die, adding to the
list of fatalities that stretch back to 1986 and 1968,
snip

1967. But that's nit-picking. Thanks for sharing this, Jon... a
well-written article.
--
-- With Best Regards,
Matthew Funke )

"Jon Berndt" wrote in message
...
As today is the season premiere for Star Trek: Enterprise, and I'll
confess
I am a trekkie, the theme song and opening credits keep coming to mind:

"It's been a long road, getting from there to here ..."

I found a column that is feels appropriate for today.

http://www.partialobserver.com/Artic...?ArticleID=632, which I
will repost below:

I wish it wasn't taking so long to get to "there".

Jon

------------------------------

It's Been A Long Road
Tragedies on the Journey to the Future.

by Jonathan Wilson
February 1, 2003

Five men and two women, representing the aspirations of three nations and
most of the civilized world, have perished today while taking the risks
that
the future requires. Pondering the tragedy, I recall the opening words to
the theme of Star Trek: Enterprise, "It's been a long road getting from
there to here..."

The long road has perils as well. When seven astronauts die, adding to the
list of fatalities that stretch back to 1986 and 1968, we might ponder the
meaning and purpose of it all. We wonder why God allows mechanical
failures.
We wonder if the journey to near space is worth the money and the risk to
life.

Pessimists in my generation--the GenX post-moderns who are now grown-up
and
working and teaching at universities, talk about the "myth of progress."
Have these technologies and space travel really made life better?

The answer is, of course, that life is better and progress is not a myth
in
the nations that have moved forward. Those who would want to trade the
median American lifestyle for the lifestyle of 1850, with sky-high infant
mortality and average life-expectancy around 45, are crazy.

It is complacency regarding this lifestyle that causes the crisis of
meaning
and leads to the conclusion that progress is a myth and a failure. People
who are saturated with materialism tend to be nihilists: It was as true in
ancient Rome as it is today. The problem with complacency and nihilism is
that it leads to risk aversion.

We forget that necessity is the mother of invention; that genius is 90%
perspiration; that suffering is the catalyst to change. Those who have
everything and see reality only in the terms of being born with an
entitlement to comfort, are the ones who conclude that risk and progress
are
meaningless.

Despite these pessimists, there are people ready and willing to take the
risks that progress into the future require. The tragedy today cuts deep,
because we value the heroes who move us forward and realize that when they
perish, they die for all of us.

However, their deaths are not meaningless nor in vain. People will
continue
to work to improve processes and technologies which will have the effect
of
making these tragedies in space even more rare than they already are.

It's a long road, and dangerous. It is also meaningful, even necessary,
that
we follow this road where risk is embraced and heroes are both celebrated
and mourned.

Thank you, NASA. Keep it up. My great-great-grandchildren are depending on
you.

About the Author:
Jonathan Wilson is a pastor in an evangelical church in Chicago.


There is another song that reminds me of the Columbia mission. It's an
instrumental light Jazz number with a little of a Indian (east), or at least
sounds like it, chant in it. It is "Space Lion" from the Cowboy Bebop
episode "Jupiter Jazz". The episode is a two part that begins with an old
Indian (American) medicine man at night sitting by a fire with his blond
headed young grandson. The grandson looks into the night sky and sees a
falling star. The old indian begins telling the story of fallen worriers
returning to the places of ended battles. The episode tells the story of a
man haunted by betral by a comrade. The story ends were it started by the
indian campfire and the falling star. The falling star is presumed to be
the spacecraft that carriers the body of the man (the soul returning the
site of a previous battle) entering and burning in the atmosphere. I cannot
find the exact words of the indian, but it is something to the effect "not
to fear death, it awaits us all" Don't be put off because it is an
aminated, it is really pretty good. "Space Lion" would make good background
music to a memorial video. I wish I had the skill to do such a thing
myself. There used to be a site where the music could be downloaded, but
the music links go nowhere now. You might find it on Kazaa, however.
"Blue" is the song I want at my funeral.

I loved the theme music to "Enterprise", but cannot stand the series
anymore. The last episode I saw was the one where the big busted vulcan
chick was trying to hide a disease she had acquired as the result of a
forced mind melt (metaphore for HIV from rape). This disease was only
acquired from mind melting which is considered devient activity (metapho
she didnt want the other vulcans to think she was kinky ho). When this was
found out there was a inquest by the vulcans, as it turned out one of the
judges was in the closet. At the end he came out of the closet and he
talked as if he was going to start bitch slapping and hitting the other
judges with his purse. I watched the last few minutes of the episode just
to give a chance for Scott Bakula to apologize. Instead there was a
commercial employing me not to discrimanate against homosexuals with AIDS (I
don't, but the writers thought I did). I am tired of being surprised with
'messege' episodes. When I watch entertainment television I want to be
intertained not taught lessons from Hollywood. When I want to learn, I
watch Discovery, History Channel, TLC, & The Weather Channel. I think most
people loved "Married With Children", "Beavis & Butthead, and now "South
Park" and "Reno911" for these very reasons. They dont get surprised. You
know stereo typing can be fun from Rednecks (me) to Blacks (sorry African
Americans) to Middle Eastern convience store
owners.....................................OK I went off on a tangent and
started rambling..................My point is Gene Rodenberrys vision of the
future is mutating into crap. If we could only take his body back to vulcan
and bring him back to life. The idea of the writing of this story was "if
you excepted Spock's mind melting as OK, we have now written you into a
corner on you beliefs on homosexuals". I don't except the premise, but it
showed me what the show's writers thought of my IQ.


--
People are more violently opposed to fur than leather because it's safer to
harass rich women than motorcycle gangs.
-Unknown

On Wed, 10 Sep 2003 09:19:45 -0500, "Jon Berndt"
wrote:

"It's been a long road, getting from there to here ..."

....Gee, thanks Jon. The *worst* choice for an opening theme for a Trek
series, and you claim it's "inspirational"?

I gotta go barf my breakfast now. Violently.


OM

--

"No ******* ever won a war by dying for | http://www.io.com/~o_m
his country. He won it by making the other | Sergeant-At-Arms
poor dumb ******* die for his country." | Human O-Ring Society

- General George S. Patton, Jr

JNICHOLS spewed out:
big snip
I loved the theme music to "Enterprise", but cannot stand the series
anymore. The last episode I saw was the one where the big busted vulcan
chick was trying to hide a disease ...

That's not right. They've tied Vulcan mind melding into homosexuality? Not
right at all. Brannon and Braga (and Piller to some extent) have screwed Star
Trek big time and Paramount doesn't care as long as they can sell it to
advertisers, er, uh, I mean "networks". Rodenberry is dizzy by now.

Anyway, there was a similar ep of DS9 that made me stop watching it. There was
this chick in a wheelchair who visited the station. She was an alien from a
world where there was very little gravity compared to earth. She needed this
chair to help her get around in 1g environments. She had all kinds of
difficulty managing daily life on the station, and developed quite the attitude
against the "normal" people on the station. It was ridiculous so many levels --
they couldn't adjust the artificial gravity for her? ****, if you can control
gravitons with ease as all the ST series have been able to do, this would be a
no-brainer. But that's a Trekker sort of nit to pick.

It was a thinly-disguised analog to people with disabilities here, today, on
earth, replete with a huge "message". I've forced myself to purge some of the
details from memory, but it was sickening. She didn't have a "handicap" per se,
but she sure acted like it and people treated her like she had one. It was
awful. I didn't watch DS9 after that. I tried to get into Enterprise. I even
thought it was pretty good the first season. For some reason I didn't watch
season 2+.

--
bp
Proud Member of the Human O-Ring Society Since 2003

On Wed, 10 Sep 2003 21:26:34 GMT, Bruce Palmer
wrote:

Anyway, there was a similar ep of DS9 that made me stop watching it. There was
this chick in a wheelchair who visited the station.

...."Melora". She was originally intended to be a regular member of the
cast, but was dropped quite late in the development phase when some
bean counter pointed out that the effects budget just for her zero-g
scenes would be expensive. The way I understand it - and Mike or Rick
can clarifiy this if they're lurking - Melora was written into a
one-shot appearance to test the waters to see if they could bring the
character for season 2. Apparently the viewer reaction wasn't too
positive, so the idea was scrapped(*).

Of course, I've yet to comprehend why floating someone on wires is
more expensive than Odo turning into goo via CGI...

(*) One comment I heard at a convention back then - one where Siddig
was still using his original name - was that the dislike for the
character stemmed from one of the prevailing views the non-handicapped
tend to take towards the handicapped. Specificially, if technology can
either aid or even cure the disability, why are there those who refuse
the treatment and instead insist that the rest of the world adapt to
their needs without them making any changes to themselves whatsoever?
Granted, we can go seriously OT on this one and debate until we're
blue in the face, but the reaction to Melora's desire to remain
"gravity-challenged" went along those lines according to a lot of
fans.

OM

--

"No ******* ever won a war by dying for | http://www.io.com/~o_m
his country. He won it by making the other | Sergeant-At-Arms
poor dumb ******* die for his country." | Human O-Ring Society

- General George S. Patton, Jr

In article , -pc-
dot.org says...
As today is the season premiere for Star Trek: Enterprise, and I'll confess
I am a trekkie, the theme song and opening credits keep coming to mind:

"It's been a long road, getting from there to here ..."

Totally off your topic, I was aghast to turn on the Enterprise season
premiere and find that the music track behind the vocal on the opening
theme has been changed, from a rock/folk ballad style to a country &
western style. Twangy honky-tonk guitars and all.

Makes me want to puke, personally.

--

Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for | Doug Van Dorn
thou art crunchy and taste good with ketchup |

On Wed, 10 Sep 2003, Bruce Palmer wrote:

JNICHOLS spewed out:
big snip
I loved the theme music to "Enterprise", but cannot stand the series
anymore. The last episode I saw was the one where the big busted vulcan
chick was trying to hide a disease ...

That's not right. They've tied Vulcan mind melding into homosexuality? Not
right at all. Brannon and Braga (and Piller to some extent) have screwed Star
Trek big time and Paramount doesn't care as long as they can sell it to
advertisers, er, uh, I mean "networks". Rodenberry is dizzy by now.

Anyway, there was a similar ep of DS9 that made me stop watching it. There was
this chick in a wheelchair who visited the station. She was an alien from a
world where there was very little gravity compared to earth. She needed this
chair to help her get around in 1g environments. She had all kinds of
difficulty managing daily life on the station, and developed quite the attitude
against the "normal" people on the station. It was ridiculous so many levels --
they couldn't adjust the artificial gravity for her? ****, if you can control
gravitons with ease as all the ST series have been able to do, this would be a
no-brainer. But that's a Trekker sort of nit to pick.

This would be a vaild complaint of sorts except that you're forgetting
that they did adjust the station gravity for her in the quarters she was
using. And adjusting the entire station's gravity downward would just
simply be a big headache for everyone else.

It was a thinly-disguised analog to people with disabilities here,
today, on earth, replete with a huge "message". I've forced myself to
purge some of the details from memory, but it was sickening. She didn't
have a "handicap" per se, but she sure acted like it and people treated
her like she had one. It was awful. I didn't watch DS9 after that. I
tried to get into Enterprise. I even thought it was pretty good the
first season. For some reason I didn't watch season 2+.

You quit watching DS9 just because of that ONE episode!? Isn't that just
atiny bit over-reactionary? Did you stop watching TOS because of silly
episodes like "Miri", and "The Omega Glory"?

Because of that you missed on the whole Dominion War series of story arcs.
You fool.
-Mike

On Wed, 10 Sep 2003, OM wrote:


Of course, I've yet to comprehend why floating someone on wires is
more expensive than Odo turning into goo via CGI...

It depends on how frequently they were planning the scenes with her
floating about versus the use of CGI morphing for Odo. Having an actor or
actress on wire rigs is not exactly the easiest of things, and I'am sure
there would be insurance and union related costs thrown in for good
measure, too.
-Mike

Mike Dicenso wrote:
Did you stop watching TOS because of silly
episodes like "Miri"

"Blah, blah, blah!!!"

:-) :-)

--
---------------
SeeYa !
--------------
Hello....... Is this thing on ?