Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show...(the opening lines of David Copperfield as written by Charles Dickens;inspired by MTM). Or at least this ACCOUNT will, perhaps, have a reflection on whether I'm going to be the hero in my own life.
...don't stand
a devil's chance
to win my soul---beggin Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons
Cinco De Mayo!!! The 5th of May. The State of Puebla, Mexico is the source for why this is significant in Mexican culture. According to the Story of Benito Juárez- Short History of Porfirio Díaz Maximilian I, Emperor of Mexico & The French Intervention: The holiday of Cinco De Mayo, The 5th Of May, commemorates the victory of the Mexican militia over the French army at The Battle Of Puebla in 1862. It is primarily a regional holiday celebrated in the Mexican state capital city of Puebla and throughout the state of Puebla, with some limited recognition in other parts of Mexico, and especially in U.S. cities with a significant Mexican population. It is not, as many people think, Mexico's Independence Day, which is actually September 16.
The 5th of May, 1961, is a date of monumental significance in American History. With the tensions already taut between the Cold War and ideological arch-rivals, the United States and the Soviet Union, that rivalry now escalated to 'new heights' with the advent of the Space Race. With the Soviets off and running with the placing of the Sputnik, the first satellite launched into orbit, we found ourselves caught off-guard. and with the Soviets additionally launching Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin into Space and sustaining 3 orbital flights around the earth, we thought--the skies were falling.
So while the Soviets are sauntering around Space on the likes of a Pegasus, we grab a shetland pony to get into the race!! N A S A(National Aeronautics & Space Administration) and the military have been testing, incessantly, rockets that would have the thrust propulsion capable of breaking the earth's gravitational pull and have a spacecraft placed in space orbiting the earth. The Soviets have the science figured out. They had to. They weren't as good as us, at miniaturization. Their spacecrafts were consistently heavier than ours. The United States, however, still doesn't have the thrust acceleration capacity figured out, yet. The rocket we are placing our hopes on is the finicky and unpredictable Atlas-Centaur. An astronaut, attached to this rocket in their Mercury Capsule, could either be lifting-off in a fiery coffin, or about to embark on the ride-of-their-life!!!
To answer the bell, we put on a dog-and-pony show. We decide to tap into the Army's space arsenal at Huntsville, AL and we use the Redstone Rocket. The rocket itself, is very very reliable and has enough thrust propulsion to get an astronaut into space, but not enough 'kick' to have the weight of the light Mercury capsule sustain earth orbit. With the Soviets already recording two major Space Age accomplishments, we had to demonstrate the ability to---do something.
On the 5th of May, 1961, N A S A has Alan Shepard, one of the Seven Original Mercury Astronauts, in a Mercury Capsule dubbed Freedom 7, sitting atop a Redstone Rocket at the Cape Canaveral Launch Site. He will be launched into space in what is technically labeled a sub-orbital flight. Shepard is to go up to clear earth's atmosphere, enter into the void of space, and allow earth's gravitational pull bring him to a parachuted splashdown to the Atlantic Ocean. While this all sounded simple enough, it was not without drama. It is a sub-orbital flight, for God's sake!!! The whole process wasn't supposed to last for more than an hour; hour and one-half, at best. Shepard had a full blown breakfast at 5AM. With this being America's first human being sitting atop a potential fireball, there is extraordinary attention paid to every detail during the countdown at Mission Control. The countdown is now heading toward the 3-hour-mark. The following detail is provided by THE ULTIMATE SPACE PLACE:
At T-15 minutes it was necessary to hold the count again to make a final check of the real-time trajectory computer. A small electrical part had a problem and this resulted in an hour and twenty six minute delay. Shepard was on top of the Redstone for so long now that he had to urinate. "Gordo!" he said, talking to Gordon Cooper, a fellow Mercury Seven astronaut and principal prelaunch communicator. "Go, Alan." "Man, I got to pee." "You what?" "You heard me. I've got to pee. I've been up here forever."
Shepard wanted to be let out but there wasn't time to reassemble the White Room. Thinking that he could be up there for hours, he told them he was going to do it in his suit. Unfortunately, there was no urine collection system and the medics were concerned he would short-circuit the leads. "Tell 'em to turn the power off!" Alan snapped. Cooper, with a chuckle in his voice said, "Okay, Alan. Power's off. Go to it."
Shepard couldn't hold back any longer and the liquid pooled in the small of his back. His heavy undergarment soaked up the urine, and with 100 percent oxygen flowing through the suit he was soon dry. The countdown resumed.
At T- minus two minutes and forty seconds and counting, Shepard heard that dreaded word again, "Hold". There was a little computer problem. Getting frustrated, he yelled, "I've been in here more than three hours. I'm a hell of a lot cooler than you guys. Why don't you just fix your little problem and light this candle?"
They fixed the problem and the countdown proceeded until liftoff at 9:34 am EST on 5/5/1961. Because of his excitement, Shepard said he failed to hear much of the closing countdown, with the exception of the firing command. During this period his pulse rate rose from 80 per minute to 126 at the liftoff signal. "You're on your way, Jose!" Deke Slayton shouted. "Roger, liftoff, and the clock has started," Alan called out.
Freedom 7 splashed down about 120 miles off the Cape Canaveral coast line in the Atlantic Ocean. Shepard quickly checked the spacecraft interior to see if any leaks had resulted from impact. There were none; it was dry. Now slowly Freedom 7 came to an upright position, taking about a minute's time, and Shepard jubilantly reported to Cardfile 23, the communications airplane, that he was all right. From beginning to end the flight mission had been almost perfect.
The U S Manned Space Program still has an amazing grip on me!!! I was always just fascinated by it!!! I paid attention to every detail; both the Soviet ledger---as well as the American Score Sheet. Those of you who know me well, know that I wear a leather that was purchase back in 1983. And while it is well weathered, I continue to wear it. I do so because I have had sewn onto the leather shoulder area, the NASA patches commemorating the Space Flights of the Original Seven Mercury Astronauts. While the nail-biting and anxiety of space flight isn't of the degree it once was,
these individuals are still extraordinary to me.
This essay is a toast to Alan Shepard; our Cinco de Mayo hero!!!!
--{-=@
Hickok
The Promise
Friday, April 30, 2010
Sunday, April 25, 2010
The Enduring Power of Loyalty; Friendships
Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show...(the opening lines of David Copperfield as written by Charles Dickens;inspired by MTM). Or at least this ACCOUNT will, perhaps, have a reflection on whether I'm going to be the hero in my own life.
...riding high, when I was king; played it hard and fast when I had everything.
I walked away, one week-end; easy come and easy go; and it would end.
Beggin' yooooou; put your loving hand out, Baby.
Beggin~~~~Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons
Some of the best Seasons songs have an emotional sourness(Gaudio) set in a mini-play structure(Crewe). Stuff happens in these songs. Lives change with a hard word or an unspoken one. Wisdom arrives like a chill. It's no Beethoven, but the songs have a pop majesty, the hymns of street corner Romeos. Pop-classic music, for all seasons. Richard Corliss TIME MAGAZINE
Above & beyond---the music, the love interests, and the ebbs and flows of the Four Seasons history is this burning question of loyalty, friendship, obligations, and being a scapegoat; a fall-guy. Was Frankie a life-long slave to Devito's eccentricities, or a Loyal Friend---to the end?. Was Valli(born Francis Stephen Castelluccio), bound by it---or TRUE-BLUE to it? Having attended The theatrical stage sensation JERSEY BOYS at the SHEAS THEATRE Saturday 24 April 2010, this gripping, spiritually and emotionally-binding attachment we humans call FRIENDSHIP came to the surface in a gripping way manifesting itself in a sense of loyalty that had Valli committed to bailing out Devito's 'obligations'---till they were satisfied. That 'obsession' cost Valli dearly. It took a toll on his finances, his marriage, and ultimately would contribute to a devastating loss for Valli. His most difficult year came in 1980, when his stepdaughter Celia was killed in a car accident. Six months after that, his daughter Francine, still a student(22), died of a drug overdose. "We were still grieving Celia's death, [but] Francine was in a good place, gearing up to start singing with my dad," says Valli's daughter Toni, 50. Francine's passing unfolds in a wrenching Jersey Boys scene in which Valli gets a phone call while on the road. He was still 'on-the-road' it seemed perpetually, trying to satisfy Devito's almost $1,000,000.00 debt; part of it to the 'mob' and part of it as IRS back-taxes.
Already reflecting on the powerful poem about FRIENDSHIPS given to me many years ago by Maria Mulder Herberger, and shared with my friends in a previous Web log, I was also sent something this week by Fallonite Dennis Lawson that again hammers home the
importance of maintaining and sustaining relationships. And then, having seen the story of Valli & Devito, and the commitment of that 'brotherhood', I just felt it necessary to reiterate the importance of enriching and deepening the bonds that we hold dear with one another.
Around the
corner I have a friend,
In this great
city that has no end,
Yet the days go
by and weeks rush on,
And before I
know it, a year is gone.
And I never see
my old friends face,
For life is a
swift and terrible race,
He knows
I like him just as well,
As in the days
when I rang his bell.
And he rang
mine but we were younger then,
And now we are
busy, tired men.
Tired of
playing a foolish game,
Tired of trying
to make a name.
'Tomorrow' I
say! 'I will call on Jim
Just to show
that I'm thinking of him.'
But tomorrow
comes and tomorrow goes,
And distance
between us grows and grows.
Around the
corner, yet miles away,
'Here's a
telegram sir,' 'Jim died today.'
And that's what
we get and deserve in the end.
Around the
corner, a vanished friend.
By Henson Towne
And This was sent to me during this last week by Fallonite,
Dennis Lawson.
This poem was written by a terminally ill young girl in a
New York Hospital.
It was sent by a medical doctor -
Make sure to read what is in the closing statement AFTER THE POEM.
SLOW DANCE
Have you ever watched kids On a merry-go-round?
Or listened to the rain Slapping on the ground?
Ever followed a butterfly's erratic flight?
Or gazed at the sun into the fading night?
You better slow down. Don't dance so fast.
Time is short. The music won't last.
Do you run through each day On the fly?
When you ask How are you? Do you hear the reply?
When the day is done Do you lie in your bed
With the next hundred chores Running through
your head?
You'd better slow down Don't dance so fast.
Time is short. The music won't last.
Ever told your child, We'll do it tomorrow?
And in your haste, Not see his sorrow?
Ever lost touch, Let a good friendship die
Cause you never had time To call and say,'Hi'
You'd better slow down. Don't dance so fast.
Time is short. The music won't last..
When you run so fast to get somewhere
You miss half the fun of getting there.
When you worry and hurry through your day,
It is like an unopened gift....Thrown away.
Life is not a race. Do take it slower
Hear the music Before the song is over.
This young girl has 6 months left to live,
and as her dying wish, she wanted to send a letter telling everyone to
live their life to the fullest, since she never will.
She'll never make it to prom, graduate from high school, or get married and have a
family of her own.
And Below!!!! Are the answers to last week's Civics Test Pop Quiz!!!
1-E 2-C 3-A 4-B 5-D 6-D 7-D 8-C 9-A 10-C 11-A 12-B 13-E 14-B 15-E 16-D 17-D 18-A 19-B 20-C 21-B 22-A 23-B 24-A 25-B 26-C 27-A 28-C 29-B 30-C 31-A 32-C 33-D
--{-=@
Hickok
The Promise
...riding high, when I was king; played it hard and fast when I had everything.
I walked away, one week-end; easy come and easy go; and it would end.
Beggin' yooooou; put your loving hand out, Baby.
Beggin~~~~Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons
Some of the best Seasons songs have an emotional sourness(Gaudio) set in a mini-play structure(Crewe). Stuff happens in these songs. Lives change with a hard word or an unspoken one. Wisdom arrives like a chill. It's no Beethoven, but the songs have a pop majesty, the hymns of street corner Romeos. Pop-classic music, for all seasons. Richard Corliss TIME MAGAZINE
Above & beyond---the music, the love interests, and the ebbs and flows of the Four Seasons history is this burning question of loyalty, friendship, obligations, and being a scapegoat; a fall-guy. Was Frankie a life-long slave to Devito's eccentricities, or a Loyal Friend---to the end?. Was Valli(born Francis Stephen Castelluccio), bound by it---or TRUE-BLUE to it? Having attended The theatrical stage sensation JERSEY BOYS at the SHEAS THEATRE Saturday 24 April 2010, this gripping, spiritually and emotionally-binding attachment we humans call FRIENDSHIP came to the surface in a gripping way manifesting itself in a sense of loyalty that had Valli committed to bailing out Devito's 'obligations'---till they were satisfied. That 'obsession' cost Valli dearly. It took a toll on his finances, his marriage, and ultimately would contribute to a devastating loss for Valli. His most difficult year came in 1980, when his stepdaughter Celia was killed in a car accident. Six months after that, his daughter Francine, still a student(22), died of a drug overdose. "We were still grieving Celia's death, [but] Francine was in a good place, gearing up to start singing with my dad," says Valli's daughter Toni, 50. Francine's passing unfolds in a wrenching Jersey Boys scene in which Valli gets a phone call while on the road. He was still 'on-the-road' it seemed perpetually, trying to satisfy Devito's almost $1,000,000.00 debt; part of it to the 'mob' and part of it as IRS back-taxes.
Already reflecting on the powerful poem about FRIENDSHIPS given to me many years ago by Maria Mulder Herberger, and shared with my friends in a previous Web log, I was also sent something this week by Fallonite Dennis Lawson that again hammers home the
importance of maintaining and sustaining relationships. And then, having seen the story of Valli & Devito, and the commitment of that 'brotherhood', I just felt it necessary to reiterate the importance of enriching and deepening the bonds that we hold dear with one another.
Around the
corner I have a friend,
In this great
city that has no end,
Yet the days go
by and weeks rush on,
And before I
know it, a year is gone.
And I never see
my old friends face,
For life is a
swift and terrible race,
He knows
I like him just as well,
As in the days
when I rang his bell.
And he rang
mine but we were younger then,
And now we are
busy, tired men.
Tired of
playing a foolish game,
Tired of trying
to make a name.
'Tomorrow' I
say! 'I will call on Jim
Just to show
that I'm thinking of him.'
But tomorrow
comes and tomorrow goes,
And distance
between us grows and grows.
Around the
corner, yet miles away,
'Here's a
telegram sir,' 'Jim died today.'
And that's what
we get and deserve in the end.
Around the
corner, a vanished friend.
By Henson Towne
And This was sent to me during this last week by Fallonite,
Dennis Lawson.
This poem was written by a terminally ill young girl in a
New York Hospital.
It was sent by a medical doctor -
Make sure to read what is in the closing statement AFTER THE POEM.
SLOW DANCE
Have you ever watched kids On a merry-go-round?
Or listened to the rain Slapping on the ground?
Ever followed a butterfly's erratic flight?
Or gazed at the sun into the fading night?
You better slow down. Don't dance so fast.
Time is short. The music won't last.
Do you run through each day On the fly?
When you ask How are you? Do you hear the reply?
When the day is done Do you lie in your bed
With the next hundred chores Running through
your head?
You'd better slow down Don't dance so fast.
Time is short. The music won't last.
Ever told your child, We'll do it tomorrow?
And in your haste, Not see his sorrow?
Ever lost touch, Let a good friendship die
Cause you never had time To call and say,'Hi'
You'd better slow down. Don't dance so fast.
Time is short. The music won't last..
When you run so fast to get somewhere
You miss half the fun of getting there.
When you worry and hurry through your day,
It is like an unopened gift....Thrown away.
Life is not a race. Do take it slower
Hear the music Before the song is over.
This young girl has 6 months left to live,
and as her dying wish, she wanted to send a letter telling everyone to
live their life to the fullest, since she never will.
She'll never make it to prom, graduate from high school, or get married and have a
family of her own.
And Below!!!! Are the answers to last week's Civics Test Pop Quiz!!!
1-E 2-C 3-A 4-B 5-D 6-D 7-D 8-C 9-A 10-C 11-A 12-B 13-E 14-B 15-E 16-D 17-D 18-A 19-B 20-C 21-B 22-A 23-B 24-A 25-B 26-C 27-A 28-C 29-B 30-C 31-A 32-C 33-D
--{-=@
Hickok
The Promise
Friday, April 16, 2010
Civics Test; Pop Quiz
Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show...(the opening lines of David Copperfield as written by Charles Dickens;inspired by MTM). Or at least this ACCOUNT will, perhaps, have a reflection on whether I'm going to be the hero in my own life.
...And bringing Religion into this equation, this is the Lord's way of helping humanity.
5 loaves~~~2 Fish; 7 Union Organizations(or better!!!)
The bounty of this is that the impact of the VOCATIONAL TRADE FAIR will affect the multitude that gathers.
Pop quiz time!!! Dare to take a Civics Test??? Remember when Civics Class was actually part of the Grade School Curriculum. That was
back when civic responsibility was, at least, attempted to be taught. Responsibilities--like voting, knowing the issues before one voted,
understanding the mechanics of our government, knowing the basics of our economic system. And knowing some of the critical historical events and people, and how these impacted the course of the American Experience.
Are you more knowledgeable than the average citizen? The average score for all 2,508 Americans taking the following test was 49%; college educators scored 55%. Can you do better? Questions were drawn from past ISI surveys, as well as other nationally recognized exams.
The following questions were taken from the 2008 Civic Literacy exam.
Come on, People!!! Take a dare; take the test!!! I did. I answered 25 out of 33 correctly — 75.76 %
Average score for this quiz during April: 74.9%
If you have any comments or questions about the quiz, please email americancivicliteracy@isi.org.
I have THE KEY to the answers. I will provide those in next week's Web Log!!
1) Which of the following are the inalienable rights referred to in the Declaration of Independence?
A. life, liberty, and property
B. honor, liberty, and peace
C. liberty, health, and community
D. life, respect, and equal protection
E. life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness
2) In 1933 Franklin Delano Roosevelt proposed a series of government programs that became known as:
A. the Great Society
B. the Square Deal
C. the New Deal
D. the New Frontier
E. supply-side economics
3) What are the three branches of government?
A. executive, legislative, judicial
B. executive, legislative, military
C. bureaucratic, military, industry
D. federal, state, local
4) What was the main issue in the debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas in 1858?
A. Is slavery morally wrong?
B. Would slavery be allowed to expand to new territories?
C. Do Southern states have the constitutional right to leave the union?
D. Are free African Americans citizens of the United States?
5) The United States Electoral College:
A. trains those aspiring for higher political office
B. was established to supervise the first televised presidential debates
C. is otherwise known as the U.S. Congress
D. is a constitutionally mandated assembly that elects the president
E. was ruled undemocratic by the Supreme Court
6) The Bill of Rights explicitly prohibits:
A. prayer in public school
B. discrimination based on race, sex, or religion
C. the ownership of guns by private individuals
D. establishing an official religion for the United States
E. the president from vetoing a line item in a spending bill
7) What was the source of the following phrase: “Government of the people, by the people, for the people”?
A. the speech “I Have a Dream”
B. Declaration of Independence
C. U.S. Constitution
D. Gettysburg Address
8) In 1935 and 1936 the Supreme Court declared that important parts of the New Deal were unconstitutional. President Roosevelt responded by threatening to:
A. impeach several Supreme Court justices
B. eliminate the Supreme Court
C. appoint additional Supreme Court justices who shared his views
D. override the Supreme Court’s decisions by gaining three-quarter majorities in both houses of Congress
9) Under Our Constitution, some powers belong to the federal government. What is one power of the federal government?
A. Make treaties
B. Make zoning laws
C. Maintain prisons
D. Establish standards for doctors and lawyers
10) Name one right or freedom guaranteed by the first amendment.
A. Right to bear arms
B. Due process
C. Religion
D. Right to counsel
11) What impact did the Anti-Federalists have on the United States Constitution?
A. their arguments helped lead to the adoption of the Bill of Rights
B. their arguments helped lead to the abolition of the slave trade
C. their influence ensured that the federal government would maintain a standing army
D. their influence ensured that the federal government would have the power to tax
12) Which of the following statements is true about abortion?
A. it was legal in most states in the 1960s
B. the Supreme Court struck down most legal restrictions on it in Roe v. Wade
C. the Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that underage women must notify their parents of an impending abortion
D. the National Organization for Women has lobbied for legal restrictions on it
E. it is currently legal only in cases of rape or incest, or to protect the life of the mother
13) Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and Aquinas would concur that:
A. all moral and political truth is relative to one’s time and place
B. moral ideas are best explained as material accidents or byproducts of evolution
C. values originating in one’s conscience cannot be judged by others
D. Christianity is the only true religion and should rule the state
E. certain permanent moral and political truths are accessible to human reason
14) The Puritans:
A. opposed all wars on moral grounds
B. stressed the sinfulness of all humanity
C. believed in complete religious freedom
D. colonized Utah under the leadership of Brigham Young
E. were Catholic missionaries escaping religious persecution
15) The phrase that in America there should be a “wall of separation” between church and state appears in:
A. George Washington’s Farewell Address
B. the Mayflower Compact
C. the Constitution
D. the Declaration of Independence
E. Thomas Jefferson’s letters
16) In his “I Have a Dream” speech, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.:
A. argued for the abolition of slavery
B. advocated black separatism
C. morally defended affirmative action
D. expressed his hopes for racial justice and brotherhood
E. proposed that several of America’s founding ideas were discriminatory
17) Sputnik was the name given to the first:
A. telecommunications system
B. animal to travel to space
C. hydrogen bomb
D. man made satellite
18) Susan B. Anthony was a leader of the movement to
A. guarantee women the right to vote in national elections
B. guarantee former slaves the right to vote
C. ensure that harsher laws against criminals were passed
D. reduce the authority of the Constitution of the United States
19) The Scopes “Monkey Trial” was about:
A. freedom of the press
B. teaching evolution in the schools
C. prayer in the schools
D. education in private schools
20) Who is the commander in chief of the U.S. military?
A. Secretary of the army
B. Secretary of state
C. President
D. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs
21) Name two countries that were our enemies during World War II.
A. Canada and Mexico
B. Germany and Japan
C. England and Spain
D. China and Russia
22) What part of the government has the power to declare war?
A. Congress
B. the president
C. the Supreme Court
D. the Joint Chiefs of Staff
23) In October 1962 the United States and the Soviet Union came close to war over the issue of Soviet:
A. control of East Berlin
B. missiles in Cuba
C. support of the Ho Chi Minh regime in Viet Nam
D. military support of the Marxist regime in Afghanistan
24) In the area of United States foreign policy, Congress shares power with the:
A. president
B. Supreme Court
C. state governments
D. United Nations
25) Free enterprise or capitalism exists insofar as:
A. experts managing the nation’s commerce are appointed by elected officials
B. individual citizens create, exchange, and control goods and resources
C. charity, philanthropy, and volunteering decrease
D. demand and supply are decided through majority vote
E. government implements policies that favor businesses over consumers
26) Business profit is:
A. cost minus revenue
B. assets minus liabilities
C. revenue minus expenses
D. selling price of a stock minus its purchase price
E. earnings minus assets
27) Free markets typically secure more economic prosperity than government’s centralized planning because:
A. the price system utilizes more local knowledge of means and ends
B. markets rely upon coercion, whereas government relies upon voluntary compliance with the law
C. more tax revenue can be generated from free enterprise
D. property rights and contracts are best enforced by the market system
E. government planners are too cautious in spending taxpayers’ money
28) A progressive tax:
A. encourages more investment from those with higher incomes
B. is illustrated by a 6% sales tax
C. requires those with higher incomes to pay a higher ratio of taxes to income
D. requires every income class to pay the same ratio of taxes to income
E. earmarks revenues for poverty reduction
29) A flood-control levee (or National Defense) is considered a public good because:
A. citizens value it as much as bread and medicine
B. a resident can benefit from it without directly paying for it
C. government construction contracts increase employment
D. insurance companies cannot afford to replace all houses after a flood
E. government pays for its construction, not citizens
30) Which of the following fiscal policy combinations would a government most likely follow to stimulate economic activity when the economy is in a severe recession?
A. increasing both taxes and spending
B. increasing taxes and decreasing spending
C. decreasing taxes and increasing spending
D. decreasing both taxes and spending
31) International trade and specialization most often lead to which of the following?
A. an increase in a nation’s productivity
B. a decrease in a nation’s economic growth in the long term
C. an increase in a nation’s import tariffs
D. a decrease in a nation’s standard of living
32) Which of the following is a policy tool of the Federal Reserve?
A. raising or lowering income taxes
B. increasing or decreasing unemployment benefits
C. buying or selling government securities
D. increasing or decreasing government spending
33) If taxes equal government spending, then:
A. government debt is zero
B. printing money no longer causes inflation
C. government is not helping anybody
D. tax per person equals government spending per person
E. tax loopholes and special-interest spending are absent
--{-=@
Hickok
The Promise
...And bringing Religion into this equation, this is the Lord's way of helping humanity.
5 loaves~~~2 Fish; 7 Union Organizations(or better!!!)
The bounty of this is that the impact of the VOCATIONAL TRADE FAIR will affect the multitude that gathers.
Pop quiz time!!! Dare to take a Civics Test??? Remember when Civics Class was actually part of the Grade School Curriculum. That was
back when civic responsibility was, at least, attempted to be taught. Responsibilities--like voting, knowing the issues before one voted,
understanding the mechanics of our government, knowing the basics of our economic system. And knowing some of the critical historical events and people, and how these impacted the course of the American Experience.
Are you more knowledgeable than the average citizen? The average score for all 2,508 Americans taking the following test was 49%; college educators scored 55%. Can you do better? Questions were drawn from past ISI surveys, as well as other nationally recognized exams.
The following questions were taken from the 2008 Civic Literacy exam.
Come on, People!!! Take a dare; take the test!!! I did. I answered 25 out of 33 correctly — 75.76 %
Average score for this quiz during April: 74.9%
If you have any comments or questions about the quiz, please email americancivicliteracy@isi.org.
I have THE KEY to the answers. I will provide those in next week's Web Log!!
1) Which of the following are the inalienable rights referred to in the Declaration of Independence?
A. life, liberty, and property
B. honor, liberty, and peace
C. liberty, health, and community
D. life, respect, and equal protection
E. life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness
2) In 1933 Franklin Delano Roosevelt proposed a series of government programs that became known as:
A. the Great Society
B. the Square Deal
C. the New Deal
D. the New Frontier
E. supply-side economics
3) What are the three branches of government?
A. executive, legislative, judicial
B. executive, legislative, military
C. bureaucratic, military, industry
D. federal, state, local
4) What was the main issue in the debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas in 1858?
A. Is slavery morally wrong?
B. Would slavery be allowed to expand to new territories?
C. Do Southern states have the constitutional right to leave the union?
D. Are free African Americans citizens of the United States?
5) The United States Electoral College:
A. trains those aspiring for higher political office
B. was established to supervise the first televised presidential debates
C. is otherwise known as the U.S. Congress
D. is a constitutionally mandated assembly that elects the president
E. was ruled undemocratic by the Supreme Court
6) The Bill of Rights explicitly prohibits:
A. prayer in public school
B. discrimination based on race, sex, or religion
C. the ownership of guns by private individuals
D. establishing an official religion for the United States
E. the president from vetoing a line item in a spending bill
7) What was the source of the following phrase: “Government of the people, by the people, for the people”?
A. the speech “I Have a Dream”
B. Declaration of Independence
C. U.S. Constitution
D. Gettysburg Address
8) In 1935 and 1936 the Supreme Court declared that important parts of the New Deal were unconstitutional. President Roosevelt responded by threatening to:
A. impeach several Supreme Court justices
B. eliminate the Supreme Court
C. appoint additional Supreme Court justices who shared his views
D. override the Supreme Court’s decisions by gaining three-quarter majorities in both houses of Congress
9) Under Our Constitution, some powers belong to the federal government. What is one power of the federal government?
A. Make treaties
B. Make zoning laws
C. Maintain prisons
D. Establish standards for doctors and lawyers
10) Name one right or freedom guaranteed by the first amendment.
A. Right to bear arms
B. Due process
C. Religion
D. Right to counsel
11) What impact did the Anti-Federalists have on the United States Constitution?
A. their arguments helped lead to the adoption of the Bill of Rights
B. their arguments helped lead to the abolition of the slave trade
C. their influence ensured that the federal government would maintain a standing army
D. their influence ensured that the federal government would have the power to tax
12) Which of the following statements is true about abortion?
A. it was legal in most states in the 1960s
B. the Supreme Court struck down most legal restrictions on it in Roe v. Wade
C. the Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that underage women must notify their parents of an impending abortion
D. the National Organization for Women has lobbied for legal restrictions on it
E. it is currently legal only in cases of rape or incest, or to protect the life of the mother
13) Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and Aquinas would concur that:
A. all moral and political truth is relative to one’s time and place
B. moral ideas are best explained as material accidents or byproducts of evolution
C. values originating in one’s conscience cannot be judged by others
D. Christianity is the only true religion and should rule the state
E. certain permanent moral and political truths are accessible to human reason
14) The Puritans:
A. opposed all wars on moral grounds
B. stressed the sinfulness of all humanity
C. believed in complete religious freedom
D. colonized Utah under the leadership of Brigham Young
E. were Catholic missionaries escaping religious persecution
15) The phrase that in America there should be a “wall of separation” between church and state appears in:
A. George Washington’s Farewell Address
B. the Mayflower Compact
C. the Constitution
D. the Declaration of Independence
E. Thomas Jefferson’s letters
16) In his “I Have a Dream” speech, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.:
A. argued for the abolition of slavery
B. advocated black separatism
C. morally defended affirmative action
D. expressed his hopes for racial justice and brotherhood
E. proposed that several of America’s founding ideas were discriminatory
17) Sputnik was the name given to the first:
A. telecommunications system
B. animal to travel to space
C. hydrogen bomb
D. man made satellite
18) Susan B. Anthony was a leader of the movement to
A. guarantee women the right to vote in national elections
B. guarantee former slaves the right to vote
C. ensure that harsher laws against criminals were passed
D. reduce the authority of the Constitution of the United States
19) The Scopes “Monkey Trial” was about:
A. freedom of the press
B. teaching evolution in the schools
C. prayer in the schools
D. education in private schools
20) Who is the commander in chief of the U.S. military?
A. Secretary of the army
B. Secretary of state
C. President
D. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs
21) Name two countries that were our enemies during World War II.
A. Canada and Mexico
B. Germany and Japan
C. England and Spain
D. China and Russia
22) What part of the government has the power to declare war?
A. Congress
B. the president
C. the Supreme Court
D. the Joint Chiefs of Staff
23) In October 1962 the United States and the Soviet Union came close to war over the issue of Soviet:
A. control of East Berlin
B. missiles in Cuba
C. support of the Ho Chi Minh regime in Viet Nam
D. military support of the Marxist regime in Afghanistan
24) In the area of United States foreign policy, Congress shares power with the:
A. president
B. Supreme Court
C. state governments
D. United Nations
25) Free enterprise or capitalism exists insofar as:
A. experts managing the nation’s commerce are appointed by elected officials
B. individual citizens create, exchange, and control goods and resources
C. charity, philanthropy, and volunteering decrease
D. demand and supply are decided through majority vote
E. government implements policies that favor businesses over consumers
26) Business profit is:
A. cost minus revenue
B. assets minus liabilities
C. revenue minus expenses
D. selling price of a stock minus its purchase price
E. earnings minus assets
27) Free markets typically secure more economic prosperity than government’s centralized planning because:
A. the price system utilizes more local knowledge of means and ends
B. markets rely upon coercion, whereas government relies upon voluntary compliance with the law
C. more tax revenue can be generated from free enterprise
D. property rights and contracts are best enforced by the market system
E. government planners are too cautious in spending taxpayers’ money
28) A progressive tax:
A. encourages more investment from those with higher incomes
B. is illustrated by a 6% sales tax
C. requires those with higher incomes to pay a higher ratio of taxes to income
D. requires every income class to pay the same ratio of taxes to income
E. earmarks revenues for poverty reduction
29) A flood-control levee (or National Defense) is considered a public good because:
A. citizens value it as much as bread and medicine
B. a resident can benefit from it without directly paying for it
C. government construction contracts increase employment
D. insurance companies cannot afford to replace all houses after a flood
E. government pays for its construction, not citizens
30) Which of the following fiscal policy combinations would a government most likely follow to stimulate economic activity when the economy is in a severe recession?
A. increasing both taxes and spending
B. increasing taxes and decreasing spending
C. decreasing taxes and increasing spending
D. decreasing both taxes and spending
31) International trade and specialization most often lead to which of the following?
A. an increase in a nation’s productivity
B. a decrease in a nation’s economic growth in the long term
C. an increase in a nation’s import tariffs
D. a decrease in a nation’s standard of living
32) Which of the following is a policy tool of the Federal Reserve?
A. raising or lowering income taxes
B. increasing or decreasing unemployment benefits
C. buying or selling government securities
D. increasing or decreasing government spending
33) If taxes equal government spending, then:
A. government debt is zero
B. printing money no longer causes inflation
C. government is not helping anybody
D. tax per person equals government spending per person
E. tax loopholes and special-interest spending are absent
--{-=@
Hickok
The Promise
Friday, April 9, 2010
The Scarlett Letter; Being a Soviet
Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show...(the opening lines of David Copperfield as written by Charles Dickens;inspired by MTM). Or at least this ACCOUNT will, perhaps, have a reflection on whether I'm going to be the hero in my own life.
...I need you so, that I could die
...I love you so, and that is why
...whenever I want you all I have to do is
Dream---dream, dream, dream Andy Gibb & Victoria Principal
This is an essay discussing a gross miscarriage of justice regarding a certain cosmonaut, the Cold War arch-rival Manned Space Programs, and the near-suicidal pace to see who was going to get to the Moon first before the end of the 1960's.
Up to June 16, 1963 the Soviets were continuously wracking up a succession of firsts. The United States, by the same token, was continually playing second-fiddle. And an almost amateurish one at that. The Soviets were putting up heavier spacecraft and were logging much more mileage and time-duration in the void of space. On June 16, 1963, I'm not quite 12 years old yet---but I KNOW that this initiative should have been heralded as one of the major accomplishments, at least of the 20th century!!! And now that I am older, I'm even more befuddled as to why this never received the recognition it deserved. On this day---The Soviet Union effects another FIRST by putting a WOMAN up in space. And additionally, this woman stays in space for almost 3 days!!! Up to this point, the only American that comes close to this is Gordon Cooper, in Faith 7, with 22 orbits; about a day and one-half in space. While this might have been an anomaly in the over all objective to see which Cold War Power was going to get to the Moon first---the United States or the Soviet Union, it was nonetheless, a 'first'. The United States doesn't even attempt to put a woman into space until 18 June 1983 when Sally Ride is one of the crew members of the Space Shuttle Challenger.
What amazed me---even back then---and boggles my mind to this day, is how little was made of this feat. As profound an accomplishment as this is, it is relegated to the back-pages of obscurity. I would venture to say that even among us bay-boomers, the lions-share of us have no clue that this even took place. And the larger shame is that more than half of the world---is made up of women. But it appears they as well are in the dark knowing of this. Among women,if it is a case of...who cares; for-shame, for-shame!!! So much more has been made of Amelia Earhart--and her effort failed. Valentina Tereshkova was successful in returning to earth; getting the task completed. So why the under-play??? Why the lack of recognition??? Was the scourge---being a woman??? Or was the 'Scarlet' Letter---being a Soviet???
Valentina Tereshkova; know this, never forgotten.
Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova Born March 6, 1937 (1937-03-06) (age 73)
Yaroslavl Oblast, Russian SFSR, USSR Other occupation Pilot
Rank General-Major, Soviet Air Force Time in space 2d 22h 50m
Selection Female Group Missions Vostok 6
Mission insignia Vostok5-6patch
Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova (Russian: Валенти́на Влади́мировна Терешко́ва; born 6 March 1937) is the first woman in space, now a retired Soviet cosmonaut. Out of more than four hundred applicants and then out of five finalists, she was selected to pilot Vostok 6 on 16 June 1963 and become the first woman to fly in space. On this mission, lasting almost three days in space, she performed various tests on herself to collect data on the female body's reaction to spaceflight.
Before being recruited as a cosmonaut, Tereshkova was a textile-factory assembly worker and an amateur parachutist. After the female cosmonaut group was dissolved in 1969, she became a prominent member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, holding various political offices. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, she retired from politics but remains revered as a hero in Russia.
Contents Early life
Tereshkova was born in a village in the Yaroslavl Oblast in western Russia. Her parents migrated from Belarus at the beginning of the 20th century[1]. Tereshkova's father was a tractor driver and her mother worked in a textile plant. She began school in 1945 at the age of eight, but left school in 1953 and continued her education by correspondence courses.[2] She became interested in parachuting from a young age, and trained in parachuting at the local Aeroclub, making her first jump at age 22 on May 21 1959. It was her expertise in parachute jumping that led to her selection as a cosmonaut. Tereshkova was a textile-factory assembly worker and an amateur parachutist when she was recruited into the cosmonaut program. In 1961 she became secretary of the local Komsomol (Young Communist League) and later joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
Career in Soviet space program
After the flight of Yuri Gagarin in 1961, Sergey Korolyov, the chief Soviet rocket engineer, came up with the idea of putting a woman in space. On 16 February 1962, Valentina Tereshkova was selected to join the female cosmonaut corps. Out of more than four hundred applicants, five were selected: Tatyana Kuznetsova, Irina Solovyova, Zhanna Yorkina, Valentina Ponomaryova, and Tereshkova. Qualifications included that they be parachutists under 30 years of age, under 170 cm (5 feet 7 inches) tall, and under 70 kg (154 lbs.) in weight.
Tereshkova was considered a particularly worthy candidate, partly due to her "proletarian" background, and because her father, tank leader sergeant Vladimir Tereshkov, was a war hero. He lost his life in the Finnish Winter War during World War II in the Lemetti area in Finnish Karelia. Tereshkova was two years old at the time of her father's death. After her mission she was asked how the Soviet Union should thank her for her service to the country. Tereshkova asked that the government search for, and publish, the location where her father was killed in action. This was done, and a monument now stands at the site in Lemetti—now on the Russian side of the border. Tereshkova has since visited Finland several times.
Training included weightless flights, isolation tests, centrifuge tests, rocket theory, spacecraft engineering, 120 parachute jumps and pilot training in MiG-15UTI jet fighters. The group spent several months in intensive training, concluding with examinations in November 1962, after which four remaining candidates were commissioned Junior Lieutenants in the Soviet Air Force. Tereshkova, Solovyova and Ponomaryova were the leading candidates, and a joint mission profile was developed that would see two women launched into space, on solo Vostok flights on consecutive days in March or April 1963.
Originally it was intended that Tereshkova would launch first in Vostok 5 while Ponomaryova would follow her into orbit in Vostok 6. However, this flight plan was altered in March 1963. Vostok 5 would now carry a male cosmonaut Valery Bykovsky flying the joint mission with a woman aboard Vostok 6 in June 1963. The State Space Commission nominated Tereshkova to pilot Vostok 6 at their meeting on May 21 and this was confirmed by Nikita Khrushchev himself. At the time of her selection, Tereshkova was ten years younger than the youngest Mercury Seven astronaut, Gordon Cooper.
Tereshkova in 2002
After watching the successful launch of Vostok 5 on June 14, Tereshkova began final preparations for her own flight. On the morning of 16 June 1963, Tereshkova and her back-up Solovyova were both dressed in spacesuits and taken to the launch pad by bus. After completing her communication and life support checks, she was sealed inside the Vostok. After a flawless two-hour countdown, Vostok 6 launched faultlessly, and Tereshkova became the first woman to fly into space. Her call sign in this flight was Chaika (English: Seagull; Russian: Ча́йка), later commemorated as the name of an asteroid, 1671 Chaika.
Although Tereshkova experienced nausea and physical discomfort for much of the flight,[3] she orbited the earth 48 times and spent almost three days in space. With a single flight, she logged more flight time than the combined times of all American astronauts who had flown before that date. Tereshkova also maintained a flight log and took photographs of the horizon, which were later used to identify aerosol layers within the atmosphere.
Vostok 6 was the final Vostok flight and was launched only two days after Vostok 5 which carried Valery Bykovsky into orbit for five days, landing only three hours after Tereshkova. The two vessels were at one point only 5 km apart, and communicated by radio.
Even though there were plans for further flights by women, it took 19 years until the second woman, Svetlana Savitskaya, flew into space, in response to the pressure of impending American Space Shuttle flights with female astronauts. None of the other four in Tereshkova's cosmonaut group ever flew.
Later career
After her flight, she studied at the Zhukovsky Air Force Academy and graduated with distinction as a cosmonaut engineer. In October 1969, the female cosmonaut group was dissolved. In 1977 she earned a doctorate in engineering. Due to her prominence she was chosen for several political positions: from 1966 to 1974 she was a member of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, from 1974 to 1989 a member of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, and from 1969 to 1991 she was in the Central Committee of the Communist Party. In 1997 she was retired from the air force and the cosmonaut corps by presidential order.
After the Vostok 6 flight a rumor began circulating that she would marry Andrian Nikolayev (1929–2004), the only bachelor cosmonaut to have flown. Nikolayev and Tereshkova married on 3 November 1963 at the Moscow Wedding Palace. Khrushchev himself presided at the wedding party, together with top government and space program leaders.
She gave birth to their daughter Elena Andrianovna Nikolaeva-Tereshkova (who is now a doctor and was the first person to have both a mother and father who had travelled into space) in 1964. She and Nikolayev divorced in 1982. Her second husband, Yuli Shaposhnikov, died in 1999.
Valentina Tereshkova later became a prominent member of the Soviet government and a well known representative abroad. She was made a member of the World Peace Council in 1966, a member of the Yaroslavl Soviet in 1967, a member of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union in 1966–1970 and 1970–1974, and was elected to the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet in 1974. She was also the Soviet representative to the UN Conference for the International Women's Year in Mexico City in 1975. She attained the rank of deputy to the Supreme Soviet, membership of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Central Committee, Vice President of the International Woman’s Democratic Federation and President of the Soviet-Algerian Friendship Society.
She was decorated with the Hero of the Soviet Union medal, the USSR's highest award. She was also awarded the Order of Lenin, Order of the October Revolution, numerous other medals, and foreign orders including the Karl Marx Order United Nations Gold Medal of Peace and the Simba International Women’s Movement Award. She was also bestowed a title of the Hero of Socialist Labor of Czechoslovakia, Hero of Labor of Vietnam, and Hero of Mongolia. In 1990 she received an honorary doctorate from the University of Edinburgh. Tereshkova crater on the far side of the Moon was named after her.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Tereshkova lost her political office but none of her prestige. To this day, she is still revered as a Russian hero, and to some her importance in Russian space history is only surpassed by Yuri Gagarin and Alexei Leonov. Since her retirement from politics, she appears infrequently at space-related events, and appears to be content with being out of the limelight.
Tereshkova's life and spaceflight were examined in detail in the 2007 book Into That Silent Sea by Colin Burgess and Francis French, including interviews with Tereshkova and her colleagues.
Tereshkova was invited to President Vladimir Putin's residence in Novo-Ogaryovo for the celebration of her 70th birthday. While there she said that she would like to fly to Mars, even if it meant that it was a one way trip.
On April 5, 2008, she became a torchbearer of the 2008 Summer Olympics torch relay in St Petersburg, Russia.
--{-=@
Hickok
The Promise
...I need you so, that I could die
...I love you so, and that is why
...whenever I want you all I have to do is
Dream---dream, dream, dream Andy Gibb & Victoria Principal
This is an essay discussing a gross miscarriage of justice regarding a certain cosmonaut, the Cold War arch-rival Manned Space Programs, and the near-suicidal pace to see who was going to get to the Moon first before the end of the 1960's.
Up to June 16, 1963 the Soviets were continuously wracking up a succession of firsts. The United States, by the same token, was continually playing second-fiddle. And an almost amateurish one at that. The Soviets were putting up heavier spacecraft and were logging much more mileage and time-duration in the void of space. On June 16, 1963, I'm not quite 12 years old yet---but I KNOW that this initiative should have been heralded as one of the major accomplishments, at least of the 20th century!!! And now that I am older, I'm even more befuddled as to why this never received the recognition it deserved. On this day---The Soviet Union effects another FIRST by putting a WOMAN up in space. And additionally, this woman stays in space for almost 3 days!!! Up to this point, the only American that comes close to this is Gordon Cooper, in Faith 7, with 22 orbits; about a day and one-half in space. While this might have been an anomaly in the over all objective to see which Cold War Power was going to get to the Moon first---the United States or the Soviet Union, it was nonetheless, a 'first'. The United States doesn't even attempt to put a woman into space until 18 June 1983 when Sally Ride is one of the crew members of the Space Shuttle Challenger.
What amazed me---even back then---and boggles my mind to this day, is how little was made of this feat. As profound an accomplishment as this is, it is relegated to the back-pages of obscurity. I would venture to say that even among us bay-boomers, the lions-share of us have no clue that this even took place. And the larger shame is that more than half of the world---is made up of women. But it appears they as well are in the dark knowing of this. Among women,if it is a case of...who cares; for-shame, for-shame!!! So much more has been made of Amelia Earhart--and her effort failed. Valentina Tereshkova was successful in returning to earth; getting the task completed. So why the under-play??? Why the lack of recognition??? Was the scourge---being a woman??? Or was the 'Scarlet' Letter---being a Soviet???
Valentina Tereshkova; know this, never forgotten.
Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova Born March 6, 1937 (1937-03-06) (age 73)
Yaroslavl Oblast, Russian SFSR, USSR Other occupation Pilot
Rank General-Major, Soviet Air Force Time in space 2d 22h 50m
Selection Female Group Missions Vostok 6
Mission insignia Vostok5-6patch
Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova (Russian: Валенти́на Влади́мировна Терешко́ва; born 6 March 1937) is the first woman in space, now a retired Soviet cosmonaut. Out of more than four hundred applicants and then out of five finalists, she was selected to pilot Vostok 6 on 16 June 1963 and become the first woman to fly in space. On this mission, lasting almost three days in space, she performed various tests on herself to collect data on the female body's reaction to spaceflight.
Before being recruited as a cosmonaut, Tereshkova was a textile-factory assembly worker and an amateur parachutist. After the female cosmonaut group was dissolved in 1969, she became a prominent member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, holding various political offices. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, she retired from politics but remains revered as a hero in Russia.
Contents Early life
Tereshkova was born in a village in the Yaroslavl Oblast in western Russia. Her parents migrated from Belarus at the beginning of the 20th century[1]. Tereshkova's father was a tractor driver and her mother worked in a textile plant. She began school in 1945 at the age of eight, but left school in 1953 and continued her education by correspondence courses.[2] She became interested in parachuting from a young age, and trained in parachuting at the local Aeroclub, making her first jump at age 22 on May 21 1959. It was her expertise in parachute jumping that led to her selection as a cosmonaut. Tereshkova was a textile-factory assembly worker and an amateur parachutist when she was recruited into the cosmonaut program. In 1961 she became secretary of the local Komsomol (Young Communist League) and later joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
Career in Soviet space program
After the flight of Yuri Gagarin in 1961, Sergey Korolyov, the chief Soviet rocket engineer, came up with the idea of putting a woman in space. On 16 February 1962, Valentina Tereshkova was selected to join the female cosmonaut corps. Out of more than four hundred applicants, five were selected: Tatyana Kuznetsova, Irina Solovyova, Zhanna Yorkina, Valentina Ponomaryova, and Tereshkova. Qualifications included that they be parachutists under 30 years of age, under 170 cm (5 feet 7 inches) tall, and under 70 kg (154 lbs.) in weight.
Tereshkova was considered a particularly worthy candidate, partly due to her "proletarian" background, and because her father, tank leader sergeant Vladimir Tereshkov, was a war hero. He lost his life in the Finnish Winter War during World War II in the Lemetti area in Finnish Karelia. Tereshkova was two years old at the time of her father's death. After her mission she was asked how the Soviet Union should thank her for her service to the country. Tereshkova asked that the government search for, and publish, the location where her father was killed in action. This was done, and a monument now stands at the site in Lemetti—now on the Russian side of the border. Tereshkova has since visited Finland several times.
Training included weightless flights, isolation tests, centrifuge tests, rocket theory, spacecraft engineering, 120 parachute jumps and pilot training in MiG-15UTI jet fighters. The group spent several months in intensive training, concluding with examinations in November 1962, after which four remaining candidates were commissioned Junior Lieutenants in the Soviet Air Force. Tereshkova, Solovyova and Ponomaryova were the leading candidates, and a joint mission profile was developed that would see two women launched into space, on solo Vostok flights on consecutive days in March or April 1963.
Originally it was intended that Tereshkova would launch first in Vostok 5 while Ponomaryova would follow her into orbit in Vostok 6. However, this flight plan was altered in March 1963. Vostok 5 would now carry a male cosmonaut Valery Bykovsky flying the joint mission with a woman aboard Vostok 6 in June 1963. The State Space Commission nominated Tereshkova to pilot Vostok 6 at their meeting on May 21 and this was confirmed by Nikita Khrushchev himself. At the time of her selection, Tereshkova was ten years younger than the youngest Mercury Seven astronaut, Gordon Cooper.
Tereshkova in 2002
After watching the successful launch of Vostok 5 on June 14, Tereshkova began final preparations for her own flight. On the morning of 16 June 1963, Tereshkova and her back-up Solovyova were both dressed in spacesuits and taken to the launch pad by bus. After completing her communication and life support checks, she was sealed inside the Vostok. After a flawless two-hour countdown, Vostok 6 launched faultlessly, and Tereshkova became the first woman to fly into space. Her call sign in this flight was Chaika (English: Seagull; Russian: Ча́йка), later commemorated as the name of an asteroid, 1671 Chaika.
Although Tereshkova experienced nausea and physical discomfort for much of the flight,[3] she orbited the earth 48 times and spent almost three days in space. With a single flight, she logged more flight time than the combined times of all American astronauts who had flown before that date. Tereshkova also maintained a flight log and took photographs of the horizon, which were later used to identify aerosol layers within the atmosphere.
Vostok 6 was the final Vostok flight and was launched only two days after Vostok 5 which carried Valery Bykovsky into orbit for five days, landing only three hours after Tereshkova. The two vessels were at one point only 5 km apart, and communicated by radio.
Even though there were plans for further flights by women, it took 19 years until the second woman, Svetlana Savitskaya, flew into space, in response to the pressure of impending American Space Shuttle flights with female astronauts. None of the other four in Tereshkova's cosmonaut group ever flew.
Later career
After her flight, she studied at the Zhukovsky Air Force Academy and graduated with distinction as a cosmonaut engineer. In October 1969, the female cosmonaut group was dissolved. In 1977 she earned a doctorate in engineering. Due to her prominence she was chosen for several political positions: from 1966 to 1974 she was a member of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, from 1974 to 1989 a member of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, and from 1969 to 1991 she was in the Central Committee of the Communist Party. In 1997 she was retired from the air force and the cosmonaut corps by presidential order.
After the Vostok 6 flight a rumor began circulating that she would marry Andrian Nikolayev (1929–2004), the only bachelor cosmonaut to have flown. Nikolayev and Tereshkova married on 3 November 1963 at the Moscow Wedding Palace. Khrushchev himself presided at the wedding party, together with top government and space program leaders.
She gave birth to their daughter Elena Andrianovna Nikolaeva-Tereshkova (who is now a doctor and was the first person to have both a mother and father who had travelled into space) in 1964. She and Nikolayev divorced in 1982. Her second husband, Yuli Shaposhnikov, died in 1999.
Valentina Tereshkova later became a prominent member of the Soviet government and a well known representative abroad. She was made a member of the World Peace Council in 1966, a member of the Yaroslavl Soviet in 1967, a member of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union in 1966–1970 and 1970–1974, and was elected to the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet in 1974. She was also the Soviet representative to the UN Conference for the International Women's Year in Mexico City in 1975. She attained the rank of deputy to the Supreme Soviet, membership of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Central Committee, Vice President of the International Woman’s Democratic Federation and President of the Soviet-Algerian Friendship Society.
She was decorated with the Hero of the Soviet Union medal, the USSR's highest award. She was also awarded the Order of Lenin, Order of the October Revolution, numerous other medals, and foreign orders including the Karl Marx Order United Nations Gold Medal of Peace and the Simba International Women’s Movement Award. She was also bestowed a title of the Hero of Socialist Labor of Czechoslovakia, Hero of Labor of Vietnam, and Hero of Mongolia. In 1990 she received an honorary doctorate from the University of Edinburgh. Tereshkova crater on the far side of the Moon was named after her.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Tereshkova lost her political office but none of her prestige. To this day, she is still revered as a Russian hero, and to some her importance in Russian space history is only surpassed by Yuri Gagarin and Alexei Leonov. Since her retirement from politics, she appears infrequently at space-related events, and appears to be content with being out of the limelight.
Tereshkova's life and spaceflight were examined in detail in the 2007 book Into That Silent Sea by Colin Burgess and Francis French, including interviews with Tereshkova and her colleagues.
Tereshkova was invited to President Vladimir Putin's residence in Novo-Ogaryovo for the celebration of her 70th birthday. While there she said that she would like to fly to Mars, even if it meant that it was a one way trip.
On April 5, 2008, she became a torchbearer of the 2008 Summer Olympics torch relay in St Petersburg, Russia.
--{-=@
Hickok
The Promise
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Moses, Moses!!!!!
Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show...(the opening lines of David Copperfield as written by Charles Dickens;inspired by MTM). Or at least this ACCOUNT will, perhaps, have a reflection on whether I'm going to be the hero in my own life.
Nefretiri: Memnet is dead! No one need know who you are! I love you. I killed for you. I'll kill anyone who comes between us.
Moses: Why did you kill for me, Nefretiri? If you love me, do not lie.
Nefretiri: Hold me in your arms. Hold me close. You were not born prince of Egypt,
Moses. You are the son of Hebrew slaves.
Moses: Love cannot drown truth, Nefretiri. You do believe it, or you would not have killed Memnet.
Nefretiri: I love you. That's the only truth I know.
Ask anyone what image forms when they think of "God" and "Moses," and you can pretty much bet that most people will be thinking of Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel and a scene from The Ten Commandments. It may seem ironic that the film for which Cecil B. DeMille has become most famous for was his final project out of the 79 he directed, but any director deserves to be proud of such a wonderfully constructed film for the ages. It's a fitting legacy to a great pioneering director, who spanned both the silent and film eras. "So let it be written, so let it be done."
This Saturday, millions of Americans will tune into the annual Passover/Easter tradition of Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments. If the past is any example, the seventh-highest grossing movie of all time will be the most watched show on television that night. The three-hour, thirty-nine minute epic, was the most-watched movie of the 1950's. I live for this movie---every year!!! And this year, I'm going to be doing much working of the remote-control: 'LAST' button, because coincidental to this movie, is the NCAA FINAL FOUR Showdown featuring one the most classic Cinderella-Story match-ups in quite awhile. That game features the under dog Butler Bulldogs against the Michigan State Spartans.
I saw the Ten Commandments for the first time---when I was 14 years old. It must have been a re-release kind-of-thing because I was Downtown, with my Mother no less, watching this movie at the Shea. Now by-and-large---everything is OK; cool until---this one scene near the end!!! You must recall that this is a HOLLYWOOD EPIC. I mean, EVERYTHING that DeMille does in this movie is on the grandest, most dramatic, most over-the-top scale, as possible. The costumes, the sets, the background music, DeMille's interspersed narratives, the dialogue, the melodrama, and the sexuality.
The scene is where Moses goes up to Mount Sinai---to get The Ten Commandments. In the scene, these dramatic fire-balls are being hurled into the stones like meteors and as they make contact with the stones, these fire-balls are chiseling the commandments into The Tablets. Now---while all of this is going on---up on Mount Sinai, all Hell has broken loose in the Valley below!!!! The Israelites have decided to collect pieces of gold to smelt into a Golden Calf false-god. The Israelites also decide to have what amounts to the best ever Hollywood-Epic version of this kind of behavior. Taking place was a sex-orgy that had my heart pounding, my blood racing, and my face beat-red from embarrassment. Keep in mind---my Mother is with me!! I slid down in my chair as I my eyes stayed riveted to that big screen!!! There are things going on all over the place!!! The debauchery is everywhere; I can't keep up with it!!! Then they grab young, hot, Lilia, Joshua's betrothed, and decide to tie her, Bondage Style, to the False-god Golden Calf. The intent is to have all the young males of Israel have-their-way-with-her!!! Admittedly, for this high-octane-wired 14 year-old---this is getting way way way too close for comfort. And of course DeMille must have figured the same!!! Because just when everything was about to 'climax', Moses comes down from Mount Sinai---and kills the Party!!! Everybody is 'busted'!!! And, as everybody knows, He gets so ticked-off, he throws down the tablets---and they get BUSTED. As Tom Cruise did say...the Time of Your Life!!!!
To this day--it is still one of my favorite movies; and to this day, that orgy scene---still gets my undivided attention. Especially the hapless Lilia.
As a Footnote---I was hoping that I might have found somewhere in the Google Information-trough, the legendary narrative that deMille speaks of in the movie when Moses is just starting to take the freed Israelites into the barren lands of Palestine. Sadly I haven't been able to secure it. If I can, I may footnote it during the week.
The Summary:
The film covers the life of Moses from his discovery in a basket floating on the Nile as a baby by Bithiah, a childless young widow and daughter of the then-Pharaoh, Rameses I, to his prohibition from entering the land of Israel in the wake of God's judgment on him at the waters of Meribah. In between, the film depicts the early adulthood of Moses as a beloved foster son of Pharaoh Seti I (brother of Bithiah) and general of his armies, his romance with Throne Princess Nefertari (or Nefretiri, as she is called in the film) and rivalry with the Pharaoh's own son, Prince Rameses II.
Shortly after Moses' birth, Rameses I had ordered the slaying of all firstborn male Hebrews to prevent the prophecy of the Deliverer from coming true. Moses' mother (called "Yoshebel" in the film) had set him adrift on the Nile to escape, with his sister Miriam watching from a hidden spot. Bithiah discovers the Ark while playing with other young women in the banks of the Nile. She orders them to leave, then shows her servant Memnet the baby. Memnet warned Bithiah that the swaddling cloth was Levite, so the baby was placed there to escape Bithiah's father's edict. But Bithiah declared that this baby would be her son, and remembered when the pyramids were dust, and named "Moses" because she had drawn him from the Nile (the Hebrew name "Moshe" derived from the Hebrew word "Mashu", meaning "to draw"). Despite Memnet's protests about serving a son of Hebrew slaves, Bithiah ordered her to serve him and to swear to secrecy on pain of death. But Memnet hides the cloth under her clothes.
As a young general, Moses is victorious in a war with the Nubian people of ancient Ethiopia, loosing captured ibises to combat the serpents (as recorded by Josephus) and further impresses Seti I by being wily enough to enter into an alliance with the conquered Ethiopians rather than subjugate them. Moses then is charged with building a treasure city for Seti's Jubilee, that Rameses failed to complete (probably the Biblical treasure cities of Pithom and Ramases (Avaris)).
Meanwhile, Moses and Nefretiri are deeply in love; she is the "throne princess", who must marry the next Pharaoh. Rameses wants her for himself, not because of any liking for her but for the throne, but Nefretiri hates him.
When Moses assumes control of the project, he rescued an old grease-woman from being left to be crushed; unknown to him it was his birthmother Yoshebel. Moses tells the Egyptian Master Builder Baka, "blood makes poor mortar" and asks "are you a master builder or a master butcher?" And he frees Joshua the stonecutter who had struck an Egyptian, punishable by death, to try to save Yoshebel whom Joshua didn't know. Moses was impressed with Joshua's bravery and words, and institutes numerous reforms concerning the treatment of the slave workers such as one day in seven to rest and even going so far as to raid temple granaries for necessary food supplies. Moses questions Joshua about his God, and Joshua declares his strong faith but says that God's name is unknown.
Rameses uses these changes as proof that Moses is planning an insurrection by currying the slaves' favor, and points out that the slaves are calling Moses the "Deliverer" of prophecy. However, when Seti confronts Moses, Moses argues he is simply making his workers more productive by making them stronger and happier. He proves his point with such impressive progress on the project that Seti becomes convinced that Rameses falsely accused his foster brother. Seti promises that Moses will get credit for the new city. Rameses, meanwhile, has been charged by his father with the task of finding out if there really is a Hebrew fitting the description of the Deliverer, and is having no luck.
As Nefretiri is joyously preparing for marriage, Memnet informs her that Prince Moses is not a prince at all, but the son of Hebrew slaves. Nefretiri is furious at the accusation, whereupon Memnet produces the Levite cloth and tells Nefretiri to wrap their firstborn in it. Memnet also tells her that a little girl had led her to Yochebel to breastfeed Moses, which she realized must be the real mother. Nefretiri kills Memnet by pushing her over the balcony.
Moses learns of this, so asks Bithiah, who dissembles and reminds him of how he never doubted her when he held his hand as he took his first step. When Moses leaves, promising that no matter what he found, he would always love her. She rushes in a chariot to Yoshebel. Bithiah pleads with her not to reveal anything, since she has put the throne of Egypt within his grasp, and also declares how much she loved and cared for him, and promised to free them and make sure they were well cared for. But Moses had followed from a distance, and Yoshebel could not look him in the eyes and deny that she was his mother. And her robe matched the pattern of the much more faded Levite cloth Memnet kept. Then Yoshebel's adult children introduce themselves to Moses as, "I am your brother, Aaron," and "I am Miriam, your sister." Bithiah sadly departs.
Declaring he is not ashamed ("Egyptian or Hebrew, I'm still Moses"), but curious, he spends time working among the slaves to learn of their hardship, only to be rescued from the mudpits by Nefretiri. Moses then saves Joshua, a Hebrew stonecutter, from being whipped death at the hands of Baka; he kills Baka who was about to whip Joshua to death. Dathan, the devious and ambitious Hebrew overseer who's been charged by Rameses to help him find the Deliverer, watches from hiding. Moses confesses to Joshua that he himself is Hebrew; Joshua excitedly proclaims Moses the Deliverer, and although Moses denies it, Dathan has all the proof he needs. Revealing what he knows to Rameses, Dathan bargains for Baka's house, a post as Governor of Goshen and the ownership of Joshua's betrothed Lilia.
Moses is arrested and brought in chains before Seti, who begs him to say he is not the Deliverer. Moses does so, but avows that he would free the slaves if he could. Bithiah confesses to her brother Seti that she took Moses from the Nile knowing by the design on his blankets that he was Hebrew. In a short, impassioned speech, Moses says that it is evil to enslave or oppress people, "to be stripped of spirit, and hope and faith, all because they are of another race, another creed. If there is a God, He did not mean this to be so!" Seti is grievously hurt, since he said that he had always loved him as a son, more than his own real son Rameses. So Seti imprisons him and orders his name stricken from all records and monuments, to be unspoken in Egypt forever thereafter. Rameses banishes Moses to the desert, fearing to execute him lest he create a martyr. Meanwhile, Seti proclaims Rameses to be the next Pharoah. Nefretiri as the Throne Princess is required to marry the arrogant prince, to her great distress.
Moses makes his way across the desert, nearly dying of hunger and thirst. He comes to a well in the land of Midian. After drinking and eating dates from a nearby palm tree he passes out, to be awakened by the sound of seven sisters watering their flocks. Bullying Amalekites appear, pushing the girls aside, whereupon Moses wakes. Seemingly appearing out of nowhere he thrashes the Amalekites soundly with his staff, forcing them to wait their turn at the well. Moses finds a home in Midian with the girls' father Jethro, a Bedouin sheik, who reveals that he is a follower of "He who has no name", which Moses recognized as the God of Abraham. Jethro explains that they are the descendants of Ishmael, Abraham's first-born. Moses later impresses Jethro and the other shieks with his wise and just trading, so Jethro offers Moses one of his daughters as a wife. Moses chooses the eldest daughter, called Sephora in the film (the Greek form of her name), the least flamboyant but wisest, who was previously the one who had stood up to the Amalekites.
Back in Egypt, Seti dies heartbroken, with Moses' name on his lips, and Rameses succeeds him as Pharaoh (becoming Rameses II), taking Nefretiri as his Queen. Herding sheep in the desert, Moses finds Joshua, who has escaped from hard labour in the copper mines. Moses sees the Burning Bush on the summit of Mount Sinai; climbing up to investigate, he hears the voice of God. Naming himself "I Am That I Am", God charges Moses to return to Egypt and free His chosen people.
At Pharaoh's court, Moses comes before Rameses to win the slaves' freedom, turning his staff into a snake to show Rameses the power of God. Jannes and another magician do the same, but Moses's snake eats the others (not shown; the small son of Rameses and Nefretiri tells his mother with alarm). But the Pharaoh decrees that the Hebrews be given no straw to make their bricks, but to make the same tally as before on pain of death. As the Hebrews prepare to stone Moses in anger, Nefretiri's retinue rescues him; but when she attempts to resume their relationship, he spurns her, reminding her that not only is he on a mission, having been touched by God, but that he is also married.
As Moses continues to challenge Pharaoh's hold over his people, Egypt is beset by divine plagues. We see the water turned into blood, and hear of others. But Rameses hears of a naturalistic explanation of a mountain beyond the Nile cataract spewing red mud, although this would not have explained what the film showed: the red colour starting from where Aaron's stick touched the river and moving away, or the water in pitchers turning red as it was poured. but given this explanation, Rameses declared it not surprising that fish would die and frogs leave the water, and flies would bloat upon their carcasses and spread disease. So Moses predicts hot hail and three days of darkness; the hot hail comes shortly after and bursts into flame on the ground. Moses warns that the next plague would come from his own lips.
Enraged at the plagues and Moses' continuous demands, and at his generals and advisers telling him to give in. Rameses orders all first-born Hebrews to die, but just as Moses had foretold, this intention backfires. Although Nefretiri warns Sephora to escape with Gershom on a passing caravan to Midian, Moses tells her sadly that it is her own son who will die, and he cannot save him. In an eerily quiet scene, the Angel of Death creeps into Egyptian streets in a glowing green cloud, killing all the firstborn of Egypt, including the adult son of Pharaoh's top general, and Pharaoh's own child. Meanwhile, Bithiah is released to Moses.
Broken and despondent, Pharaoh orders Moses to take "your people, your cattle, your God and your pestilence" and go. Dathan is also ordered out when the Egyptian guards sees the sacrifice lamb's blood on the sides of his door frame, his position as an overseer counting for nothing with the Egyptians, the Hebrews resentful of him and refusing him the privileges he expects. The Exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt begins.
Behold His mighty hand!Goaded into rage by Nefretiri in her grief and anger at Moses, the Pharaoh arms himself and gathers his armies to chase the former slaves to the shore of the Red Sea. Held back by a pillar of fire, the Egyptian forces can only watch as Moses parts the waters ("Behold His mighty hand!") to provide his people an escape route. As the Hebrews race over the seabed, the pillar of fire dies down and the army rides in hot pursuit. The Hebrews make it to the far shore just in time to witness God's closing of the waters on the Egyptian army, drowning every man and horse. Rameses looks on in despair. All he can do is return to Nefretiri, confessing to her, "His god is God."
The former slaves camp at the foot of Sinai and wait as Moses again ascends the mountain. When Moses delays coming down from Sinai, the Hebrews lose faith and, urged on by the evil Dathan, build a golden calf as an idol to bear before them back to Egypt, hoping to win Rameses' forgiveness. Aaron is forced to help fashion the gold plating. He also orders Lilia to be sacrificed. The people proceed to indulge their most wanton desires in an orgy of sinfulness. Sephora, now re-united with Moses, tells the people that he has gone to receive God's Law, and Bithiah asks, "Would the God who's shown you such wonders let Moses die before his work his done?" But their defences are mostly disregarded after Dathan's demagoguery.
Meanwhile, high atop the mountain, Moses witnesses God's creation of the stone tablets containing the Ten Commandments. When he finally climbs down, Moses beholds his people's iniquity and hurls the tablets at the idol in a rage. The idol explodes, and Dathan and his followers (such as Korah) are killed, a burning crevasse swallows all who do not join Moses at his side. After God forces them to endure forty years' exile in the desert wandering lost to prove their loyalty, the Hebrews finally are on the eve of arriving in the land of Israel. An elderly Moses then appoints Joshua to succeed him as leader (with Lilia by Joshua's side), says a final good bye to his devoted wife Sephora, and goes forth out of Israel to his destiny.
Nefretiri: Memnet is dead! No one need know who you are! I love you. I killed for you. I'll kill anyone who comes between us.
Moses: Why did you kill for me, Nefretiri? If you love me, do not lie.
Nefretiri: Hold me in your arms. Hold me close. You were not born prince of Egypt,
Moses. You are the son of Hebrew slaves.
Moses: Love cannot drown truth, Nefretiri. You do believe it, or you would not have killed Memnet.
Nefretiri: I love you. That's the only truth I know.
Ask anyone what image forms when they think of "God" and "Moses," and you can pretty much bet that most people will be thinking of Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel and a scene from The Ten Commandments. It may seem ironic that the film for which Cecil B. DeMille has become most famous for was his final project out of the 79 he directed, but any director deserves to be proud of such a wonderfully constructed film for the ages. It's a fitting legacy to a great pioneering director, who spanned both the silent and film eras. "So let it be written, so let it be done."
This Saturday, millions of Americans will tune into the annual Passover/Easter tradition of Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments. If the past is any example, the seventh-highest grossing movie of all time will be the most watched show on television that night. The three-hour, thirty-nine minute epic, was the most-watched movie of the 1950's. I live for this movie---every year!!! And this year, I'm going to be doing much working of the remote-control: 'LAST' button, because coincidental to this movie, is the NCAA FINAL FOUR Showdown featuring one the most classic Cinderella-Story match-ups in quite awhile. That game features the under dog Butler Bulldogs against the Michigan State Spartans.
I saw the Ten Commandments for the first time---when I was 14 years old. It must have been a re-release kind-of-thing because I was Downtown, with my Mother no less, watching this movie at the Shea. Now by-and-large---everything is OK; cool until---this one scene near the end!!! You must recall that this is a HOLLYWOOD EPIC. I mean, EVERYTHING that DeMille does in this movie is on the grandest, most dramatic, most over-the-top scale, as possible. The costumes, the sets, the background music, DeMille's interspersed narratives, the dialogue, the melodrama, and the sexuality.
The scene is where Moses goes up to Mount Sinai---to get The Ten Commandments. In the scene, these dramatic fire-balls are being hurled into the stones like meteors and as they make contact with the stones, these fire-balls are chiseling the commandments into The Tablets. Now---while all of this is going on---up on Mount Sinai, all Hell has broken loose in the Valley below!!!! The Israelites have decided to collect pieces of gold to smelt into a Golden Calf false-god. The Israelites also decide to have what amounts to the best ever Hollywood-Epic version of this kind of behavior. Taking place was a sex-orgy that had my heart pounding, my blood racing, and my face beat-red from embarrassment. Keep in mind---my Mother is with me!! I slid down in my chair as I my eyes stayed riveted to that big screen!!! There are things going on all over the place!!! The debauchery is everywhere; I can't keep up with it!!! Then they grab young, hot, Lilia, Joshua's betrothed, and decide to tie her, Bondage Style, to the False-god Golden Calf. The intent is to have all the young males of Israel have-their-way-with-her!!! Admittedly, for this high-octane-wired 14 year-old---this is getting way way way too close for comfort. And of course DeMille must have figured the same!!! Because just when everything was about to 'climax', Moses comes down from Mount Sinai---and kills the Party!!! Everybody is 'busted'!!! And, as everybody knows, He gets so ticked-off, he throws down the tablets---and they get BUSTED. As Tom Cruise did say...the Time of Your Life!!!!
To this day--it is still one of my favorite movies; and to this day, that orgy scene---still gets my undivided attention. Especially the hapless Lilia.
As a Footnote---I was hoping that I might have found somewhere in the Google Information-trough, the legendary narrative that deMille speaks of in the movie when Moses is just starting to take the freed Israelites into the barren lands of Palestine. Sadly I haven't been able to secure it. If I can, I may footnote it during the week.
The Summary:
The film covers the life of Moses from his discovery in a basket floating on the Nile as a baby by Bithiah, a childless young widow and daughter of the then-Pharaoh, Rameses I, to his prohibition from entering the land of Israel in the wake of God's judgment on him at the waters of Meribah. In between, the film depicts the early adulthood of Moses as a beloved foster son of Pharaoh Seti I (brother of Bithiah) and general of his armies, his romance with Throne Princess Nefertari (or Nefretiri, as she is called in the film) and rivalry with the Pharaoh's own son, Prince Rameses II.
Shortly after Moses' birth, Rameses I had ordered the slaying of all firstborn male Hebrews to prevent the prophecy of the Deliverer from coming true. Moses' mother (called "Yoshebel" in the film) had set him adrift on the Nile to escape, with his sister Miriam watching from a hidden spot. Bithiah discovers the Ark while playing with other young women in the banks of the Nile. She orders them to leave, then shows her servant Memnet the baby. Memnet warned Bithiah that the swaddling cloth was Levite, so the baby was placed there to escape Bithiah's father's edict. But Bithiah declared that this baby would be her son, and remembered when the pyramids were dust, and named "Moses" because she had drawn him from the Nile (the Hebrew name "Moshe" derived from the Hebrew word "Mashu", meaning "to draw"). Despite Memnet's protests about serving a son of Hebrew slaves, Bithiah ordered her to serve him and to swear to secrecy on pain of death. But Memnet hides the cloth under her clothes.
As a young general, Moses is victorious in a war with the Nubian people of ancient Ethiopia, loosing captured ibises to combat the serpents (as recorded by Josephus) and further impresses Seti I by being wily enough to enter into an alliance with the conquered Ethiopians rather than subjugate them. Moses then is charged with building a treasure city for Seti's Jubilee, that Rameses failed to complete (probably the Biblical treasure cities of Pithom and Ramases (Avaris)).
Meanwhile, Moses and Nefretiri are deeply in love; she is the "throne princess", who must marry the next Pharaoh. Rameses wants her for himself, not because of any liking for her but for the throne, but Nefretiri hates him.
When Moses assumes control of the project, he rescued an old grease-woman from being left to be crushed; unknown to him it was his birthmother Yoshebel. Moses tells the Egyptian Master Builder Baka, "blood makes poor mortar" and asks "are you a master builder or a master butcher?" And he frees Joshua the stonecutter who had struck an Egyptian, punishable by death, to try to save Yoshebel whom Joshua didn't know. Moses was impressed with Joshua's bravery and words, and institutes numerous reforms concerning the treatment of the slave workers such as one day in seven to rest and even going so far as to raid temple granaries for necessary food supplies. Moses questions Joshua about his God, and Joshua declares his strong faith but says that God's name is unknown.
Rameses uses these changes as proof that Moses is planning an insurrection by currying the slaves' favor, and points out that the slaves are calling Moses the "Deliverer" of prophecy. However, when Seti confronts Moses, Moses argues he is simply making his workers more productive by making them stronger and happier. He proves his point with such impressive progress on the project that Seti becomes convinced that Rameses falsely accused his foster brother. Seti promises that Moses will get credit for the new city. Rameses, meanwhile, has been charged by his father with the task of finding out if there really is a Hebrew fitting the description of the Deliverer, and is having no luck.
As Nefretiri is joyously preparing for marriage, Memnet informs her that Prince Moses is not a prince at all, but the son of Hebrew slaves. Nefretiri is furious at the accusation, whereupon Memnet produces the Levite cloth and tells Nefretiri to wrap their firstborn in it. Memnet also tells her that a little girl had led her to Yochebel to breastfeed Moses, which she realized must be the real mother. Nefretiri kills Memnet by pushing her over the balcony.
Moses learns of this, so asks Bithiah, who dissembles and reminds him of how he never doubted her when he held his hand as he took his first step. When Moses leaves, promising that no matter what he found, he would always love her. She rushes in a chariot to Yoshebel. Bithiah pleads with her not to reveal anything, since she has put the throne of Egypt within his grasp, and also declares how much she loved and cared for him, and promised to free them and make sure they were well cared for. But Moses had followed from a distance, and Yoshebel could not look him in the eyes and deny that she was his mother. And her robe matched the pattern of the much more faded Levite cloth Memnet kept. Then Yoshebel's adult children introduce themselves to Moses as, "I am your brother, Aaron," and "I am Miriam, your sister." Bithiah sadly departs.
Declaring he is not ashamed ("Egyptian or Hebrew, I'm still Moses"), but curious, he spends time working among the slaves to learn of their hardship, only to be rescued from the mudpits by Nefretiri. Moses then saves Joshua, a Hebrew stonecutter, from being whipped death at the hands of Baka; he kills Baka who was about to whip Joshua to death. Dathan, the devious and ambitious Hebrew overseer who's been charged by Rameses to help him find the Deliverer, watches from hiding. Moses confesses to Joshua that he himself is Hebrew; Joshua excitedly proclaims Moses the Deliverer, and although Moses denies it, Dathan has all the proof he needs. Revealing what he knows to Rameses, Dathan bargains for Baka's house, a post as Governor of Goshen and the ownership of Joshua's betrothed Lilia.
Moses is arrested and brought in chains before Seti, who begs him to say he is not the Deliverer. Moses does so, but avows that he would free the slaves if he could. Bithiah confesses to her brother Seti that she took Moses from the Nile knowing by the design on his blankets that he was Hebrew. In a short, impassioned speech, Moses says that it is evil to enslave or oppress people, "to be stripped of spirit, and hope and faith, all because they are of another race, another creed. If there is a God, He did not mean this to be so!" Seti is grievously hurt, since he said that he had always loved him as a son, more than his own real son Rameses. So Seti imprisons him and orders his name stricken from all records and monuments, to be unspoken in Egypt forever thereafter. Rameses banishes Moses to the desert, fearing to execute him lest he create a martyr. Meanwhile, Seti proclaims Rameses to be the next Pharoah. Nefretiri as the Throne Princess is required to marry the arrogant prince, to her great distress.
Moses makes his way across the desert, nearly dying of hunger and thirst. He comes to a well in the land of Midian. After drinking and eating dates from a nearby palm tree he passes out, to be awakened by the sound of seven sisters watering their flocks. Bullying Amalekites appear, pushing the girls aside, whereupon Moses wakes. Seemingly appearing out of nowhere he thrashes the Amalekites soundly with his staff, forcing them to wait their turn at the well. Moses finds a home in Midian with the girls' father Jethro, a Bedouin sheik, who reveals that he is a follower of "He who has no name", which Moses recognized as the God of Abraham. Jethro explains that they are the descendants of Ishmael, Abraham's first-born. Moses later impresses Jethro and the other shieks with his wise and just trading, so Jethro offers Moses one of his daughters as a wife. Moses chooses the eldest daughter, called Sephora in the film (the Greek form of her name), the least flamboyant but wisest, who was previously the one who had stood up to the Amalekites.
Back in Egypt, Seti dies heartbroken, with Moses' name on his lips, and Rameses succeeds him as Pharaoh (becoming Rameses II), taking Nefretiri as his Queen. Herding sheep in the desert, Moses finds Joshua, who has escaped from hard labour in the copper mines. Moses sees the Burning Bush on the summit of Mount Sinai; climbing up to investigate, he hears the voice of God. Naming himself "I Am That I Am", God charges Moses to return to Egypt and free His chosen people.
At Pharaoh's court, Moses comes before Rameses to win the slaves' freedom, turning his staff into a snake to show Rameses the power of God. Jannes and another magician do the same, but Moses's snake eats the others (not shown; the small son of Rameses and Nefretiri tells his mother with alarm). But the Pharaoh decrees that the Hebrews be given no straw to make their bricks, but to make the same tally as before on pain of death. As the Hebrews prepare to stone Moses in anger, Nefretiri's retinue rescues him; but when she attempts to resume their relationship, he spurns her, reminding her that not only is he on a mission, having been touched by God, but that he is also married.
As Moses continues to challenge Pharaoh's hold over his people, Egypt is beset by divine plagues. We see the water turned into blood, and hear of others. But Rameses hears of a naturalistic explanation of a mountain beyond the Nile cataract spewing red mud, although this would not have explained what the film showed: the red colour starting from where Aaron's stick touched the river and moving away, or the water in pitchers turning red as it was poured. but given this explanation, Rameses declared it not surprising that fish would die and frogs leave the water, and flies would bloat upon their carcasses and spread disease. So Moses predicts hot hail and three days of darkness; the hot hail comes shortly after and bursts into flame on the ground. Moses warns that the next plague would come from his own lips.
Enraged at the plagues and Moses' continuous demands, and at his generals and advisers telling him to give in. Rameses orders all first-born Hebrews to die, but just as Moses had foretold, this intention backfires. Although Nefretiri warns Sephora to escape with Gershom on a passing caravan to Midian, Moses tells her sadly that it is her own son who will die, and he cannot save him. In an eerily quiet scene, the Angel of Death creeps into Egyptian streets in a glowing green cloud, killing all the firstborn of Egypt, including the adult son of Pharaoh's top general, and Pharaoh's own child. Meanwhile, Bithiah is released to Moses.
Broken and despondent, Pharaoh orders Moses to take "your people, your cattle, your God and your pestilence" and go. Dathan is also ordered out when the Egyptian guards sees the sacrifice lamb's blood on the sides of his door frame, his position as an overseer counting for nothing with the Egyptians, the Hebrews resentful of him and refusing him the privileges he expects. The Exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt begins.
Behold His mighty hand!Goaded into rage by Nefretiri in her grief and anger at Moses, the Pharaoh arms himself and gathers his armies to chase the former slaves to the shore of the Red Sea. Held back by a pillar of fire, the Egyptian forces can only watch as Moses parts the waters ("Behold His mighty hand!") to provide his people an escape route. As the Hebrews race over the seabed, the pillar of fire dies down and the army rides in hot pursuit. The Hebrews make it to the far shore just in time to witness God's closing of the waters on the Egyptian army, drowning every man and horse. Rameses looks on in despair. All he can do is return to Nefretiri, confessing to her, "His god is God."
The former slaves camp at the foot of Sinai and wait as Moses again ascends the mountain. When Moses delays coming down from Sinai, the Hebrews lose faith and, urged on by the evil Dathan, build a golden calf as an idol to bear before them back to Egypt, hoping to win Rameses' forgiveness. Aaron is forced to help fashion the gold plating. He also orders Lilia to be sacrificed. The people proceed to indulge their most wanton desires in an orgy of sinfulness. Sephora, now re-united with Moses, tells the people that he has gone to receive God's Law, and Bithiah asks, "Would the God who's shown you such wonders let Moses die before his work his done?" But their defences are mostly disregarded after Dathan's demagoguery.
Meanwhile, high atop the mountain, Moses witnesses God's creation of the stone tablets containing the Ten Commandments. When he finally climbs down, Moses beholds his people's iniquity and hurls the tablets at the idol in a rage. The idol explodes, and Dathan and his followers (such as Korah) are killed, a burning crevasse swallows all who do not join Moses at his side. After God forces them to endure forty years' exile in the desert wandering lost to prove their loyalty, the Hebrews finally are on the eve of arriving in the land of Israel. An elderly Moses then appoints Joshua to succeed him as leader (with Lilia by Joshua's side), says a final good bye to his devoted wife Sephora, and goes forth out of Israel to his destiny.
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