it must suck to be Buzz Aldrin. He'll always be number two. No school children will learn his name. His whole life is defined by just coming shy of immortality. Ten minutes too late to be eternal. One man stands between him and history.

John Glenn only went to space twice and he's in the books. He was so famous they couldn't risk sending him again until recently. Tom Hanks portrayed Jim Lovell and he never even set foot on the moon, his stupid capsule exploded.

Neil isn't even using his title for anything. He's just retired out in Ohio. He has a funny picture on his refrigerator. Big deal. Heck, he even screwed up the grammar in the first sentence! It's one small step for a man. Small step for man, my bottom!

I guess that is what America wants from its heroes. Do your thing, then disappear. To keep Lincoln from falling from grace he had to die. Now he is immortal and perfect. Just as Jimmy Hendrix can no longer be challenged as guitarist supreme, so too does America want Neil Armstrong out of the way. Out of sight, out of sin, flawless and everlasting.

You know, NASA never designated which of them was to be the first on the moon. It was just kind of assumed that Neil would do it. But it didn't have to be him. It could have been Buzz. During the whole three-day flight from the Earth to the Moon, you could toss a coin and see who it was to be. Buzz was on the cusp of forever and had he not blinked he would have become a man transcendent. He could have accepted a call from destiny. He could have beaten Neil up. Told him that history was his alone. Made him trade his birthright for stew. Said, "Neil Armstrong, I will be the first man on the moon and you cannot stop me! I shall drink from the cup of life everlasting and no man will thwart me! For time immortal I will stand alone the first man to escape the limit of our tiny blue earth and set his foot on the gray surface of a new world! I will not go silently into the future, unknown and forgotten, no! Mankind shall always remember the name of Edwin Eugene Aldrin Junior!"

But no.

No one remembers Buzz Aldrin...