PrintJuly 20, 2006
The Man From Wapakoneta
It was a time when America desperately needed heroes. As the institutions and beliefs that formed the heritage of the nation were being systematically dismantled by counterculture revolutionaries, those who held such things in high regard fervently sought for inspiring reminders of America's greatness.
But all the pop culture of the late 1960's had to offer in response were its own icons of social collapse, as epitomized by Bob Dylan and Abbie Hoffman. The flag was routinely being publicly desecrated, and contempt shown towards every building block of the American establishment. Nihilism and anti—Americanism appeared to be winning the day.
But in the midst of social upheaval, a man came forward and stepped right into the eye of that storm. Wapakoneta, Ohio's most famous son, Neil Armstrong, accepted the challenge to pick up and carry the nation's tattered flag. And carry it he did, as it had never been carried before, across a quarter million miles of space to a...(Read Full Article)
