ON THIS DAY Today is July 4th on which we marked the beginning of our country as an independent power among the nations of men of planet Earth.
This is an exceptional one in that it was also the day on which our Shuttle Program renewed its space flights after a three-year interim following the disintegration of the shuttle "Columbia". This afternoon our family gathered by the TV set in the dining room to watch the historic launch and each of us, I know, must have been thinking of the last moments of the "Columbia" crew and praying tat today's launch would go well.
It did - and continues to do so now at four-something in the afternoon. We were quieter, I noticed, less excited than on previous occasions. Either we have become accustomed by such fantasy as it all seems to be, at times, satiated with heavy doses of scientific advancement. I had a distinct feeling that more prayer was being thought, voiced and felt during those last moments of countdown than a double-trio of special national "Prayer Days" held now and then after much preparation.
It is at moments such as this when we are led to contemplate the strange situations in which we, so often, seem to find ourselves em-meshed.
Just as our forefathers must have experienced new feelings of freedom when they migrated to these far off shores, so, too, have we in our movements as well. We added new dimensions of appreciation to the pliant scale of
awareness in our very souls as we moved into the western wilderness to continue an element of frontier living which had been ours since those first, fearful days on the Atlantic coast. We have found our way into every crevice of this Earth and we have now placed footholds on the threshold of worlds beyond in space travel.
It is not going to be easy. We have among us evil forces intent upon confusing our goals
