The Real Aviation Day

National Aviation Day is supposedly August 19th, because that’s Orville Wright’s birthday, but I submit that today is the real Aviation Day.

One hundred five years ago today — December 17, 1903 — the Wright flyer made its first flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.* Up until that day, August 19th was destined only to be National Bicycle Day.

In honor of Aviation Day, take a second to say a special prayer for the passengers and crew of an aircraft you see flying overhead. Or maybe listen to “Jet Airliner” or “Leaving on a Jet Plane” or something by the Jefferson Airplane. 😉

And for those interested, today also qualifies for another installment of our “This Day in Space History” series. Five years ago today, UHF Follow-On Flight 11 became the first U.S. military payload to be launched by a Russian-designed rocket engine. Its Atlas-3B booster used a Russian RD-180 engine to launch the spacecraft.

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*Where, if all goes well and the money holds out, we will vacation this summer.

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The Messages We Send, and Receive

I was in Greensboro for a short time last evening, and stopped for a bite at a fast food restaurant just south of town. As I started pulling into one of several empty parking slots near the door, I noticed that it was marked “Employee Parking Only.”

Except for the two handicapped parking spaces, all the spaces near the entrance were marked, “Employee Parking Only.”

I wondered what message the management was trying to send.

Were they trying to say, “We value our employees, and want to do what we can for them even though we pay them very little and make them wear funny little cardboard headpieces?” If so, that’s very nice of them to be so considerate of their employees. But the message I got was, “Hey, customers, we like our employees more than we like you.” (Maybe they’d like to add, “Please come in and spend your money anyway.”)

I asked the young man behind the counter about it, and he just laughed. He said I was about the fiftieth customer who had asked since they repainted the parking lot — and that the employees don’t even use the spaces, so we were welcome to them.

So I still don’t know what message they were trying to send. I just hope I can communicate more clearly than that in my own writing — my speechwriting, my nonfiction writing, and my fiction.

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The GrayMan as Blogging Guest: U.N. Responsibility to Protect Doctrine

I answered a call for guest bloggers from All American Blogger, and was asked to write about how the new Administration might address the United Nations’ “Responsibility to Protect” doctrine. Below, I cross-posted the text from this page.

What Will a President Obama Likely Do With the U.N. Responsibility to Protect Doctrine?
by Gray Rinehart

Given that many in the international community seemed to interpret the recent U.S. election in terms favorable to themselves — so far accepting that the President-elect bodes well for their own nations — will our incoming President be likely to honor the goodwill he has gained by acceding to one of the United Nations’ most obnoxious doctrines?

The U.N. “Responsibility to Protect” doctrine, abbreviated R2P, sounds laudable enough in that it requires sovereign nations to protect their citizenry against maltreatment and human rights abuses; however, the doctrine goes further: it enjoins other nations to intervene if domestic nations fail to protect their people to the satisfaction of the international community.

R2P is a transnationalist’s dream. It requires nations to intervene in other nations’ internal affairs, and requires that they do so at the behest and under the authority of the United Nations Security Council. (The recent Russian incursion into sovereign Georgia, for example, would not qualify as an R2P event — not simply because the humanitarian cause was overstated or even drummed up, but because the U.N. Security Council did not authorize it.)

According to the Genocide Intervention Network, R2P “was created [in 2001] by the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, an independent international commission established by the government of Canada,” to address concerns raised by then-U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan in response to the genocide in Rwanda. “In his report to the 2000 General Assembly, [Annan] challenged the international community to come to a consensus on when and how humanitarian interventions should proceed.” Furthermore,

R2P has redefined the conception of state sovereignty by arguing that international community [sic] has the responsibility to protect civilians in states that are unwilling or unable to do so.

Rebecca J. Hamilton, writing in the 2006 Harvard Human Rights Journal, put it well that this means (emphasis added)

Each state has a responsibility to protect its citizens; if a state is unable or unwilling to carry out that function, the state abrogates its sovereignty, at which point both the right and the responsibility to remedy the situation falls to the international community. This proposal refutes the long-standing assumption enshrined in Article 2(7) of the 1945 U.N. Charter, that there is no right to “intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state.”

For the international community to usurp a nation’s sovereignty is a very serious matter, but R2P seems to treat it quite cavalierly. In a May 2008 paper for the Heritage Foundation, Stephen Groves argued that “Adopting a doctrine that compels the United States to act to prevent atrocities occurring in other countries would be risky and imprudent,” and that the U.S. “needs to preserve its national sovereignty by maintaining a monopoly on the decision to deploy diplomatic pressure, economic sanctions, political coercion, and especially its military forces.”

R2P actually involves three escalating responsibilities which nations owe not to their own people but to the people of foreign lands: as stated by the Genocide Intervention Network, the responsibilities to prevent “internal conflict and other man-made crises putting populations at risk;” to react to the same with “appropriate measures” ranging from sanctions (which have historically hurt more than helped indigenous populations while affecting determined tyrants hardly at all) to military action; and to rebuild after the event. The last “responsibility” is actually the least troublesome, since the U.S. in particular has shown greater will and ability to rebuild former enemies than any other nation in history. Most troublesome are the first, a clear blow against a nation’s sovereignty, and the second, a call for nations to intercede under the U.N. flag in matters which do not threaten other sovereign nations.

How might a President Obama handle R2P?

In October 2007, Senator Obama was noncommittal in his answer to a presidential candidate questionnaire. He said R2P was “an important and developing concept in international affairs and one which my Administration will closely monitor.” Cynics might point out that his answer was a somewhat verbose way of saying “we don’t know yet.” In contrast, we may take some encouragement from his unwillingness to commit to following the U.N. doctrine, and believe that he may weigh U.S. national interests above nebulous international interests or unproven geopolitical assertions.

Unfortunately, his nomination of Senator Clinton as Secretary of State is problematic in this regard, because her take on R2P appears to be much different — and Foggy Bottom is already known for playing by its own rules in the realm of diplomacy. In November 2007, in answer to the same candidate questionnaire, Senator Clinton said,

It is essential that the new Secretary General of the United Nations begin to bridge the gap between [the doctrine] and the institution’s deeds through a series of reforms intended to operationalize this concept. I am … committed to seeing that the United States and other economic and militarily capable states and organization take steps to bolster UN action.

Senator Clinton said that if she were elected President she would “adopt a policy that recognizes the prevention of mass atrocities as an important national security interest of the United States, not just a humanitarian goal.” That’s an interesting take on what should constitute a national security matter: a fine example of transnationalist thinking that would make a good topic for another day. Because she is not the President-elect, we may dismiss for the foreseeable future her promise to “develop a government-wide strategy to support this policy.” However, given the position to which she has been nominated, we should consider that she also said,

I will authorize my Secretary of State to institutionalize atrocity prevention into the work of the State Department, and I will direct my Secretary of State to strongly support the mission and activities of the office of reconstruction and stabilization, which plays an increasingly critical role.

As U.S. Secretary of State, then, is Ms. Clinton likely to subordinate Foggy Bottom to the directives of the U.N.? Is she likely to re-order U.S. diplomatic efforts in such a way as to support R2P and other international doctrines, to the detriment if not exclusion of our legitimate national interests? We wonder if such questions will be asked in her confirmation hearing. We hope her answer would be “no.” It is too soon to tell how independent her State Department would be from her President’s Administration — or if they would operate in synch — and which interests they would prioritize highest.

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President-elect Obama was careful during his campaign not to make the mistake Senator Kerry did in 2004, of saying he would subject questions of U.S. involvement or action to a “global test.” It remains to be seen whether he and his appointees will place the sovereign interests of the U.S. ahead of transnational interests, or if they will subordinate U.S. interests to some “greater good.” Once he occupies the Oval Office, he will no longer be able to circumlocute his position; perhaps in his first “State of the World” address* he will tell us what direction he plans to take our nation, and the world.

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*In October 2007, Senator Obama reportedly said, “I’ll give an annual ‘State of the World’ address to the American people in which I lay out our national security policy.”

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The First Observatory in Space: 40 Years Ago Today

Today is Pearl Harbor Day, the day that lives in infamy and spurred a generation of U.S. citizens we have called our greatest generation — who fought and won a wide-ranging and brutal war and ushered this nation into its role as a world leader. What a shame that today, because it is harder to put names, faces, and places to the enemy that confronts us, we are not united in the cause of victory for freedom. Let us never forget.

Today is also the 40th anniversary of the launch of Orbiting Astronomical Observatory 2 (OAO-2), the first functioning space observatory, launched from the Eastern Space & Missile Center on 7 December 1968. The OAO mission was a series of space observatories; the first attempt, OAO-1, was launched in April 1966 but a power failure kept it from making any observations.

OAO-2 …

made significant contributions to ultraviolet astronomy by studying high energy environments such as novae and super-novae, and it discovered that comets have a huge hydrogen haloes. OAO-2 carried 11 ultra-violet telescopes aloft and for the first time, scientists were able to observe in the ultraviolet region of the spectrum with no intervening atmosphere to block the light.

We’ve come a long way from OAO-2 to HST, but that’s still pretty impressive for the early days of spaceflight.

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My Friends' Booksigning

Last night I trekked to Greensboro, where my writing friends Edmund Schubert, James Maxey, and Scott Roberts — along with our writing teacher Orson Scott Card — were signing copies of the Intergalactic Medicine Show anthology (along with their individual books). It was a very nice event, made particularly so because my daughter agreed to come with me. The only drawback was that particular Barnes & Noble wasn’t set up for signings as nicely as the one here in Cary is.

Before the signing, we met Ed and family, James and Scott, and several member’s of Ed’s local writing group at Macaroni Grill for a relaxed, enjoyable supper (OSC, unfortunately, could not join us). Relaxed, that is, until some confusion over the checks almost made us late getting to the bookstore! But, everyone made it with at least a few seconds to spare.

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Ten Years Ago in Space: The Birth of ISS

Ten years ago today — December 4th, 1998 — Space Shuttle Endeavour launched from Kennedy Space Center on mission STS-88. The shuttle rendezvoused with the already launched Zarya Control Module and attached the Unity Node; together the two provided the foundation for future International Space Station components and the current ISS. Robert D. Cabana, Frederick W. Sturckow, Nancy J. Currie, Jerry L. Ross, James H. Newman , and Sergei K. Krikalev were part of that historic mission.

And now you know.

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Another Honorable Mention from Writers of the Future

Alex Wilson, one of my writing friends — and essentially a neighbor, since he lives right down I-40 a few miles — and fellow member of the Codex Writers group, called my attention to the fact that several of us once again received Honorable Mentions in the Writers of the Future contest. This is my third HM out of nine entries, which isn’t great but it’s not bad either. Again it is my great honor to be on the list with Alethea Kontis and Rick Novy, and again I grit my teeth and vow to do better next time.

And now, I need to be reading some slush.

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Space Anniversaries, 2 December: 2 Shuttle Launches

Continuing our series of space anniversaries,*

Twenty-five years ago today, Space Shuttle Atlantis launched from Kennedy Space Center on mission STS-27. Astronauts “Hoot” Gibson, Guy Gardner, Mike Mullane, Jerry Ross, and Bill Shepherd deployed a DoD payload. I think this was one of the missions my old boss worked on when he was stationed at the Cape.

And fifteen years ago today, STS-61 lifted off from Kennedy Space Center for the first mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope. Aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour were astronauts Richard O. Covey, Kenneth D. Bowersox, F. Story Musgrave, Kathryn C. Thornton, Claude Nicollier, Jeffrey A. Hoffman, and Thomas D. Akers.

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* Using only 5-year increments, for the most part.

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Made Word-Count Goal, Still Not Done (grumble)

Thanks to my loving and understanding family, I was able to hole up and write-write-write this weekend in order to make my goal of finishing MARE NUBIUM. I had anticipated the book would be about 100K words long, and originally planned to be finished by Halloween; I pushed that deadline back a month after my lovely wife’s injury, and this weekend I did indeed cross the 100K-word mark — in fact, I’m up to about 110K after incorporating a previously-written short story that was an Honorable Mention for Writers of the Future.

Unfortunately, the overall novel still isn’t finished yet. Hopefully I can wrap it up in the next 10-20K words, and then go back and edit it back down to where it should be. Whether that will happen by the end of the year, I’m not sure … but I’m going to try.

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Space History Today: Cape Kennedy

Forty-five years ago today — on 29 November 1963 — President Lyndon Johnson issued Executive Order Number 11129 to change the name Cape Canaveral to Cape Kennedy.

According to this site,

On November 28, 1963 President Lyndon B. Johnson announced in a televised address that Cape Canaveral would be renamed Cape Kennedy in memory of President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated six days earlier. President Johnson said the name change had been sanctioned by the U.S. Board of Geographic Names. Executive Order Number 11129, issued by President Johnson on November 29, 1963 decreed that the NASA Launch Operations Center (LOC), including facilities on Merritt Island and Cape Canaveral, would be renamed the John F. Kennedy Space Center, NASA.

Florida residents didn’t appreciate the historic Cape Canaveral name being taken from them without their approval. Ten years later, the U.S. Board of Geographic Names responded to challenges from the State of Florida by officially recognizing the state’s name change from Cape Kennedy back to Cape Canaveral. The space center remained John F. Kennedy Space Center, NASA.

On a political note, this makes an interesting contrast to the numerous calls to name places after the current President-elect. At least, I think it’s an appropriate counterpoint.

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