Magnetic Hero Of The Space Poem by michael spangenberg

It was an anxious nation that watched and listened as John Glenn, one of the Seven original American astronauts, climbed into Friendship 7, the tiny Mercury Capsule atop an Atlas rocket rising from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

The Eagle has landed on the moon - 'That's one small step for a man, one giant Leap for mankind, ' words said when Mission Commander Armstrong wrote history By first stepping onto the moon on July 20,1969.

No flier since Lindbergh had received such a cheering welcome. Bands played. People cried with relief and joy, invitations to the White House by President John F. Kennedy and paraded up Broadway and across the land.

Congress stood and applauded vigorously as Mr. Glenn spoke at the Capitol
Glen had given Americans back their self-respect, as a matter of fact the World-At-large dared again to hope to dream the collective American dream.

Tom Wolfe judged him the last true hero America has ever had, Glenn contested: I figure I'm the same person who grew up in Ohio, all this would have happened To anyone who happened to be selected for that flight.

The dismissive aw-shucks of a ninety-years old: I don't think of myself as a hero He said. I get up each day and have the same problems others have at my age. As far as trying to analyze all the attention I received, I will leave that to others.

Glen pretty much seems to have been made out of the Right Stuff, a phrase for Coolness in the face of danger that has since then passed into our national idiom His return to space in 1998 drew criticism - incapable to spread his old wings.

But the aging astronaut was not to be denied, and his heroic image, and Reawakened memories of the early space age, attracted launching crowds
On a scale not seen since astronauts were flying to the moon.

Still vigorous, active as a pilot, though not as agile as in 1962, Glenn embarked On His second venture in space to show the world that the lives of older people Need not be dictated by arbitrary calendars of ignorant folks.

Footnote - A tribute to an all-loving humble hero, based on: NYT Obituary
John Glenn, American Hero of the Space Age Dies at 95, by: John Wilford
New York Times, Dec.8,2016.