Two Democratic congresswomen want to set aside space on the moon, of all places, for a national historical park.

Bad idea, ladies of the House.

http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/house/309829-dems-propose-historical-park-on-the-moon

Reps. Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas and Donna Edwards of Maryland think it’s OK to set the land aside and furnish it with memorabilia taken from all the moon missions that occurred from 1969 through 1972.

Allow me this brief historical recap.

The Apollo 11 mission, the first one to the moon, occurred in July 1969. There was a brief debate within NASA over who should command that mission. The task fell to Neil Armstrong partly because at the time he was a civilian test pilot and was not serving on active military duty.

The idea was intended to deny the Soviet Union any political ammo. We were involved in a race to the moon with the Soviets. We got there first and NASA didn’t want the Evil Empire to concoct some half-baked theory that a military man planting the Stars and Stripes would constitute some kind of goofy military conquest.

The moon missions were intended to promote at some level a sense of international peace and understanding.

The notion now of making a national park site out of one or more landing areas flies in the face of that mission. There is no compelling need to establish such a park on moon.