What do you remember about Valentina Tereshkova?

Yesterday I wrote about the tme capsule inside the former Christian Science church building that no houses a local branch of the Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum. In passing I mentioned that Florence Nightingale was featured in several display cases.

A display on the West side of the room featured another amazing woman. Does the name Valentina Tereshkova ring a bell? For most of us it doesn't, but it should. Ms. Tereshkova was the first woman cosmonaut to go into space and the only woman to have ever flown a solo mission in outer space. Flying alone on the Vostok 6 mission on June 16, 1963, she orbited the Earth 48 times and spent nearly three days in space. At 26 years old during her flight, she’s still the youngest woman ever to go to space, both by reaching 100 kilometers above Earth and by orbiting the planet.

One amazing part of this story is that the rocket men who designed these early rockets did not yet design a safe way to return to earth. Americans are familiar with the early tin can models with heat shields and parachutes. The Soviet approach in the return to earth was for the astronaut to exit the rocket four miles above the ground and skydive to  earth, which is was Valentina Tereshkova did.

Respected & decorated: Tereshkova in 1969.

Before being selected for this space adventure, Tereshkova was a textile worker who also did amateur competitive skydiving. In short, by following her passion for parachute jumping, she ended up making history as a cosmonaut. She retired from the Air Force in 1997 as a Major General and decorated national hero. After retiring she pursued a career in politics until 2022.

Fun Fact
For her orbital flight she was outfitted with all necessities you'd expect--clothing, food, water, toothpaste, but NO toothbrush!

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To learn more about Major General Tereshkova's career and achievements, visit
Valentina Tereshkova on Wikipedia

Note to Valentina: Congratulations on your courage and example for women. 

A Duluth Time Capsule Goes on Display at the Karpeles Manuscript Museum

The metal container after being pried open.

If you've never been present at the opening of a time capsule, then you are missing something special. The idea of it has to be fun, from deciding what to save for posterity to wondering what's inside when people open it up decades later.

This past Saturday Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum opened a time capsule that had been placed beneath the cornerstone of the former church building that now houses the museum. At the time, this had been the home for a Church of Christ, Scientist congregation that gathered here.

For those unfamiliar with this Duluth treasure, the Manuscript Library Museum is one of many around the country. This one, however, is unique because it's located in the town where David Karpeles graduated high school, Denfeld in Duluth West Side.

I heard about the time capsule only by chance last week. With a little free time on my hands I dropped in to see what the current themes were on dislay. Two of the featured exhibits were Florence Nightingale and the event that generated the famous poem "Charge of the Light Brigade." While there, local museum director Matthew Sjelin notified me of the weekend event.

I found the story intriguing because in 2007 I attended the opening of a time capsule in Tulsa, Oklahoma. A gold and white 1957 Plymouth Belvedere had been placed in a concrete vault that was to be opened in 2007. Boyd Coddington, an L.A. car-builder with a television show was on hand to help get the car started after its 50 year sleep. Inside the trunk were the "time capsule" contents.

So I was curious about the contents that had been hidden since 1912. First off, the container--a metal box--was smaller than I expected, but based on the quantity of books it contained the thing was really packed. A book of poetry by Mary Baker Eddy was one item that caught my eye. There were also newspapers from the day it was placed, as well as photos, Christian Science Journals, Bibles, letters and a sheet with signatures of all members of the congregation.

Here are some of the items they placed in the vault for posterity:

Related Links

Treasures of the Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum

The History of Medicine @ Karpeles

Time Capsules: What Would You Conceal For 100 Years?

Christa Lawler's Account of the Treasures at Karpeles in Duluth

        The Minnesota Star Tribune, 28 Sept 2024

  

Wordless Wednesday: Udder Disaster

A.I.-generated artwork

Original Art used as Prompt:

"Udder Disaster"--24"x 36" Acrylic on panel

Free Speech Is Under Assault

"I'm from the government.
We're here to help you."

Gallup polls have shown that a majority of Democrats are in favor of restricting free speech, while a majority of Republicans are pro free speech. Yesterday, a John Kerry clip was making the rounds.

At a World Economic Forum event John Kerry recently explained the situation this way:

Social media has made it "really hard" for governments to build consensus.

This statement makes clear that consensus is an imortant value for those who govern, even more important than people or truth.*

Kerry goes on to say that the masses tend to go to a single source for news, which becomes an echo  chamber. The assumption is that people are ignorant, though not all. He's calling out those who are suckered into believing disinformation.\

"People self-select where they go for news," Kerry said. "And you get into a vicious cycle."

So, does Kerry want the government to select for them? 

Who then should be the arbiter of truth? For John Kerry the problem is not disinformation. It is the U.S. Constitution with its Bill of Rights. For Kerry, and others of his ilk, the public has to be protected.

"Our first amendment stands as a major block to hammer disinformation out of existence," Kerry asserts.

Again, who decides what is truth? And why is consensus so important? For several years the media presented a one-sided picture of the Vietnam War. The networks shared the scripted Pentagon interpretations of that war. A few brave journalists chose to actually go see what was happening, and it was disturbing. Yes, the government won its consensus, disseminated by mainstream media--newspapers and networks--but what was the reality? It was not what we were being told, and over time the ugly truth seeped out and into the public conscience. I wonder, however, how much shorter that war might have been had more contrarian voices heard.

"I think democracies are very challenged right now and have not proven they can move fast enough."—John Kerry

Does Me. Kerry want King George again? Or a totalitarian? Dictators can move very fast. Ask the Red Queen and you'll see. "Off with their heads!"

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Michael Shellenberg's response to John Kerry: "Most of us enjoy more free speech than ever thanks to X. That’s why the elites are desperate to censor it, ban it, or take it over. Every day another totalitarian makes his intentions known. We must defend a free X. Our lives depend on it."

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Reminder: Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says free speech is a weapon of war, and censorship is necessary to protect free speech.

What do you think of that?

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Ben Franklin had other ideas: "Freedom of speech is a principal pillar of a free government; when this support is taken away, the constitution of a free society is dissolved, and tyranny is erected on its ruins."

Related Links

Censorship Is a Tool of Those in Power

The Westminster Declaration: An Important Statement for Our Times

Censorship as First Step to Totalitarianism

*When I speak of consensus, I am referring to forced consensus