Imagine more "space" at expanded city library

Imagine more 'space' at expanded city library

In the May 2017 issue of the Smithsonian's Air & Space magazine, a tour was announced involving the Apollo 11 command module, christened "Columbia," that took astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins 953,054 miles to the moon and back. Nearly 50 years after that trip, the spacecraft, charred and battered from the forces of atmospheric re-entry, is about to make another journey, shorter and at a more sedate pace, across the United States. For the next two years, Columbia will travel 8,000 miles and visit four museums.

Imagine that a reinvented University of Arkansas Museum at the now old City Hospital building was extant along with the newly expanded Fayetteville Public Library.

Imagine the moon rocks that, I believe, are in storage with the rest of the U of A Museum artifacts were a part of the display.

Imagine that accompanying the capsule might be an astronaut, such as Tracy Caldwell Dyson, who was selected as an astronaut by NASA in 1998. A California native, she has a Ph.D. in chemistry, and is a veteran of two space flights. Or maybe Stephen G. Bowen (captain, U.S. Navy), who the first submarine officer to be selected as an astronaut by NASA. Bowen is a veteran of space shuttle missions STS-126, STS-132 and STS-133. The STS-126 mission was the 27th International Space Station assembly mission.

Imagine these NASA astronauts visiting the re-created University of Arkansas Museum and telling the youth of Northwest Arkansas about their experiences in space, perhaps inspiring some to excel in our schools to also become NASA Astronauts.

Imagine a Northwest Arkansas student astronaut being named to the team that first travels the 141 million miles to the Red Planet, Mars, to open exploration of this sister planet.

If you too can imagine this possibility, send an email to the Fayetteville Public Library director, David Johnson, at [email protected], and say "Yes! I share this vision for the reimagined University of Arkansas Museum in the remodeled old City Hospital." Sign your name and if you wish your phone number.

You can make this happen. Act today!

Tom Clark

Fayetteville

Many benefited from 'someone else's labor'

Probably it is a coincidence that Bradley R. Gitz's column, "Getting Rights Wrong," appeared on May 1, International Workers Day. Gitz is right to say that nobody has a moral or legal right to a free computer. But he goes too far when he says that "no proper understanding of rights would grant someone a right to the fruits of someone else's labor."

The Founders he invokes included slave owners who could afford to support the revolution because they lived by the fruits of someone else's labor. The oil, coal and railroad fortunes of the 19th century were fruits of the work of laborers whose access to decent wages and protections from the hazards of their jobs was denied by their employers, often with the violent support of the government. Americans have benefits in transportation, consumer goods and services because the government subsidizes and protects manufacturing, communication, banking and other elements of our economy. These protections are paid for by the fruits of someone else's labor via taxation. But heaven forbid that taxes should benefit the actual laborers.

In his columns, Gitz frequently expresses a kind of zero-sum psychology. A bigger slice of the pie for one must result in a smaller piece for others. In fact, when laborers, minorities, women or children do better -- when they are well educated, healthy and secure in their daily lives -- the entire society is better off. The rich can still have their big cars even when workers have transportation to work. A woman with decent housing and care for her children is a more productive worker knowing they are safe and healthy. Young men with marketable skills are less likely to live on the streets.

The government willingly "invests" in corporate projects that benefit the wealthy. Services for the rest of us should be considered, if not rights, at least investments that pay important social and economic dividends.

Ethel C. Simpson

Fayetteville

Commentary on 05/07/2017

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