The Saga of June Chapter 4

I was excited on Monday to be going to the Space Center in Huntsville. I like space. It’s pretty, magnificent, and still largely unknown. Hubby and I are also fans of Sci Fi, in no small part because we are post-moon landing children. I believe in the space of StarTrek and all the possibilities when humankind unites in the common goals of science and exploration. What I did not want to have happen on my trip to the Space Center was to be confronted with Nazis and worship of the military. I was so naïve. Just like the discovery of rock tools and gunpowder, it seems like the human race is not happy with new technology until we figure out how to kill people with it.

Intellectually, I knew the space program was in good part military. What I did not realize was the extent of military involvement in the development of the space program. Intellectually, I knew that the so-called founder of rocket science was a Nazi. What I did not expect was that the Space Center was in large part a shrine to a Nazi and a war criminal.

Werner von Braun only escaped the noose of Nuremburg because the US was eager to snatch up all the scientists ahead of the Russians. Because of Werner von Braun, London, England endured the barrage of V-2 rockets. Because of Werner von Braun, untold civilians died. Instead of being hailed a hero, Werner von Braun’s name should be pronounced with the same disgust as Eichmann or Mengele. Because he possessed knowledge our government wanted, we helped him and his cronies escape Germany and the Russians. My disgust could not be greater until I saw the tributes to von Braun.

As a writer and avid reader, I think in story. I think about heroes and anti-heroes, villains and blackguards. I am also sensitive to the fact that history and memory are in large part stories we tell ourselves. I abhor a people who tell stories that make villains heroes by omitting their evil deeds.

Hitler knew story. He knew that a good storyteller could make the righteous unrighteous and evil the thing most to be desired – even among those who should know better.

I ended my tour saddened, bug bitten, and still sun poisoned. I wished I didn’t know the things I do, and that people wouldn’t ask me why I was upset and then give me the look when I told them. Most of all I wished I could have kept my idea of peaceful space exploration intact. As I sat there thinking about all I had seen, I allowed myself to believe that given the chance we would militarize space – had militarized space. As I sat there, I understood on a whole new level what fear does to people and a nation – all the things we are willing to believe, do, give up because we are afraid of communists, terrorists, or a yet, unnamed boogeyman.