And how did we pay for it? It’s unfathomable in our age of political fecklessness, when Congress couldn’t unite to fill one pothole in downtown Washington, D.C., if their lives depended on it. It defies belief. But we need to resist that kind of defiance. Question authority? Right on. Question actuality? Peace out.
Apart from the unassailable facts, what moon truthers blithely dismiss is the transcendent piece of the moon landing (a sinful waste, given how scarce transcendence has become). The real discovery of Apollo 11 wasn’t the moon but Earth — the astronauts’ breathtaking photo over their shoulders, Earth’s first selfie, which upended how we see ourselves, in ways we still haven’t processed. The astronaut Michael Collins, who took that iconic photo, said Earth, so tiny in the vast oceanic darkness, gave a vivid impression of “fragility,” an observation rich in both poetry and humility.
I don’t know if athletes are extra-susceptible to trutherism, moon or otherwise. Kim Kardashian also disputed the moon landing, and I suspect she changed few hearts or minds. But when an elite athlete says it? Countless kids take note. Muhammad Ali was the first person who made me see the Vietnam War as immoral. John Carlos and Tommie Smith were the first to make me see that protest can be beautiful as well as brave. To kids, every athlete is the epitome of cool, and thus the voice of authority, and that goes triple for Mr. Allen, who has the second-best-selling jersey in the entire N.F.L. I think of all those boys and girls wearing No. 17 and hearing Mr. Allen doubt humanity’s greatest achievement, and I just know that many will forever harbor doubts as well. Especially if the Buffalo Bills win the Super Bowl.
Come to think of it, the moon landing was a lot like Buffalo’s six-decade quest to win it all. Improbable bordering on impossible. When it does finally happen, presumably with Mr. Allen at the controls, there will be jubilation across New York, as there was when the Eagle landed. Expect a giant ticker-tape parade for Mr. Allen, as there was for the Apollo astronauts. Champions often say, “This is something no one can ever take from us,” but if I could speak with Mr. Allen, if I were to send him my repurposed Maye letter, I’d ask him to imagine someone in the future taking it away.
I’d invite Mr. Allen to picture it: Despite the parades, the millions of witnesses, the incontrovertible video evidence, suddenly there are prominent people questioning whether it ever happened. Try to imagine how that would feel, I’d implore him. Try.
