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The first action occurred on Friday when the California Historical Resource Commission voted the items left behind* at Tranquility Base as historic state treasurers (not the land itself...that's precluded by treaty.) Now four others states will be asked to take similar actions, and Reuters reports Alabama is one of them.
Will Alabama go along? It all seems so straightforward, but there are any number of examples where Alabama has allowed historic sites be destroyed (Terminal Station in Birmingham comes to mind, and a Native American mound in Anniston that was almost used for fill dirt.)
Will pro-business forces in the state fear setting precedent by blocking development? It seem farfetched that someone would want to damage the artifacts, but you never know. There's so much commerical space exploration on the way that it might be prudent to act now.
It also seems appropriate that this story is posted right after the first full-moon of 2010 occurs, and at the same time a new U.S. mission to the Moon is being scuttled by The Obama Administration because of the miserable economy.
[*Read the list of the 100 plus objects on the California declaration.]
Well... there are some things that're just plain ol' silly, now aren't they?
ReplyDeleteI must mention, however, that the Saturn V rocket we have here in The Rocket City is now a National Historic Landmark - with which I'm certain many would agree. Believe it or else, much of that era's documents are missing, which means a significant part of our recent history is absent.
And, I should add that just today I listened to an Oxford-style debate on the question of "Is California the first failed state?"
The audience found in favor if the argument in the affirmative.