30 Days Out (From Christmas): Peace On Earth
Day 29 – I remember when the Apollo 8 astronauts went into space, right before Christmas in 1968. That was a rough year – Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy were shot, Vietnam was a bloody stain on the other side of the world. Violence boiled over into the streets. As Christmas week opened, three men in a little metal capsule hurtled through space toward the moon.
The astronauts of Apollo 8 were the first humans 
to reach the orbit of another planetary body. As they streaked across the dark side of the moon on Christmas Eve, they turned on their TV camera. A live audience of millions heard the astronauts read from the Book of Genesis while we saw our bright blue planet rise gracefully above the lunar surface. We looked so fragile, so small – how can we not find a way to live together?
Today we have family and friends in the military, fighting wars on the other side of the world. Our economic situation is threatening to once again send angry, unemployed people back into the streets. As we face a new year with a new president and new challenges, perhaps we can look at ourselves once again and learn a small lesson from the past.
So on Christmas day, this day of hope and promise, we leave you with Apollo 8 astronaut Frank Borman’s signoff from that night 40 years ago: “Good night, good luck, and a Merry Christmas to all of you – all of you on the good Earth.”
MP3: “Jingle Bells” by Celia Cruz (con la Sonora Matancera)
MP3: “Navidad” by the Gipsy Kings
MP3: “Christmas Feeling” by Toots & the Maytals
MP3: “Boas Festas” by Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso with Eliane Elias
MP3: “St. Stephen’s Day Murders” by the Chieftains with Elvis Costello
MP3: “Fairytale Of New York” by the Pogues with Kirsty MacColl
MP3: “Mele Kalikimaka” by Bing Crosby
MP3: “Gaudete” by Steeleye Span
MP3: “We Wish You A Merry Christmas” by the Weavers
MP3: “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” by John Lennon and Yoko Ono
December 8, 2009 at 4:04 pm
wow! THIS IS SO COOL. I LOVE CHIRSTMAS
LAUGH LAUGH