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Show REP. LAURENCE J. BURTON A blazing streak across the skies Thursday, July 24, 1969, signalled man's greatest triumph tri-umph in space! He had conquered con-quered the elements of another planet's system! Truly, this is one off the greatest moments in history, because the three men who rode that small spacecraft space-craft back from the moon had taken man's first steps on another an-other world. More is yet to come. But as we sit and ponder the unbelievable obstacles that have been overcome, we might also reflect on another feat that occurred on July 24, 122 years ago. That also was an undertaking that most men would have been unable to accomplish. ac-complish. That was the day that a small band of pioneers finished their journey to "a promised land." That was the day that a bed-sick leader rose from his covered wagon to look upon a barren and desolate area ar-ea and proclaim, "This is the Place." Just as the spacemen pioneer pio-neer in space, Brigham Young and his followers pioneered the plains, fighting hunger, disease, and even death as they crossed the treacherous mountains and barren plains, braving the cold of winter, until the journey was ended. Brigham Young refused to yield to those who wanted to pussh on to the gold of California Cal-ifornia and decided rather to settle in a bleak desert of sagebrush sage-brush and salt. But as before, the Mormon leader and his faithfful followers follow-ers did not balk at the impossible, impos-sible, just as our space efforts have taken the word 'impossible' 'impos-sible' out of a venture of which only Jules Verne dreamed. Irrigation Ir-rigation ditches were dug, streets were blocked out, houses, hous-es, built, and crops were planted. plan-ted. Impossible to do such a thing in a hostile barren place? Man though Brigham Young was out of his mind, but the faithful knew better and the small handful of pioneers pio-neers grew steadily, and today Utah's population is over a million. mil-lion. Utah has progressed over the years, as our space program has. As a matter of fact, our Utah industries were instrumental instru-mental in the construction of some key components of the moon shot's hardware. From humble beginnings, in a hostile environment, Utah today has become a leader in industry, tourism and education. Our professors number among the nation's finest in our universities. The NEA ranks Utah at or near the top in nearly every measurement of the effectiveness of its education educa-tion program, which is why the out-of-state student enrollment enroll-ment is so high. We have nine universities and colleges, and in my opinion, the very finest educational ed-ucational system and let me say that we don't have the typical Columbia or Harvard scene of hippies taking over the administration buldings. Why? Because our students are there to learn! We have progressed, that is true. But what does the future hold for Utah? We built a great city and state out of a wilderness. We are only beginning, be-ginning, however, because we, as citizens of the Beehive State, won't sit still while progress pro-gress is being made eleswhere. Indeed we have "blossomed as the rose," and we will continue con-tinue to take those "first steps," the moon men did by using the resources of our Utah men and women whose spirit, ability, and integrity will not be content with living in the shadows of others. It took faith and courage for our astronauts and those in the space program to progress to the stage where they are today. It took faith and courage for our pioneers to fight the bitter winters, Indians, perennial drought, unseasonable storms, and other hardships to make our Utah what it is today. But there are others with the same backbone. There are other Brigham Youngs, other pioneers pio-neers who won't say "it can't be done." Because to the typical typi-cal Utahn, there is no such word as "can't." As Our President, Richard Nixon, told the three astronauts astro-nauts aboard the carrier Hornet, Hor-net, "This is the greatest week in the history of the world since creation." I can only add that the feat parallels in many ways the difficult journey and accomplishments of Brigham Young and his Mormon colonizers. colon-izers. My ancestors crossed the plains in covered wagons to begin be-gin a new life. Now, perhaps man has crossed space to begin a new way of life on other worlds. |