John Kelly: Community pride rises as era ends

With each passing week, we're seeing more people getting sentimental about the impending end of the space shuttle program. The shuttles are a cultural icon across the country, and certainly more eyes than ever are on the Space Coast as the last flight approaches.

But cultural icon doesn't really cover the kind of effect they have here in Brevard County. It's so much of what we live and breathe. The number of people who approach me about my work writing about the space program always has amazed me, but the numbers are compounding fast as the spotlight brightens for the shuttle program's final act.

Whether you're a lifelong resident, a transplant here or a visiting tourist, it seems the space program is a part of our local pride. The emotion is overcoming people more often lately, not just about the shuttles, but about our nation's entire human spaceflight program. People are hanging farewell signs on businesses. Kids are asking for posters. And visiting musicians are tipping their caps in concerts at the King Center in Melbourne.

No, really. I was chatting with FLORIDA TODAY Sports Editor Mike Parsons last week, and he shared a story like so many I've heard from people in recent months. Since I couldn't tell the story better than Mike, I thought I'd let him share it with you.

"Sometimes it is hard to put huge events into perspective," said Mike, a veteran sports journalist who hails from upstate New York. "Especially something as big as the end of the shuttle program, but it struck me Wednesday night during "Rain," a Beatles tribute at The King Center.

"As the band changes costume, the curtain goes down and they play other music from that time and flash pictures. Martin Luther King Jr., the Vietnam War, John F. Kennedy's famous speech. All got some cheers and claps. They also showed early shuttles taking off and flying. But it was when they showed John Glenn on the moon that really got everyone's attention.

"As the photo hit the screen, the audience erupted. It was a cheer and applause rivaling the band's introduction. It was loud and it was long. It was even a bit emotional.

"That is when it struck me. That was not American history we were seeing, like Vietnam and JFK, that was a piece of Brevard County history. It may have happened millions of miles away, but it is our history.

"No matter where you are from originally or where you live in the county, there is a pride that is attached to the space program.

"That pride showed itself Wednesday night during a music concert. Makes you wonder whether the band stopped for a moment and noticed what was happening.

"As my wife, Michelle, said: 'I bet those pictures usually don't get that sort of reaction.'

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