December
20,2015
Bill Nye
Chief
Executive Officer
The
Planetary Society
60 South Los
Robles Avenue
Pasadena,
California 91101
Dear Bill:
In September of 1996 I hit bottom. I
found myself living in a homeless shelter and earning $8.00 per hour at an
exploitation job. I was approaching 48 years of age with little or no prospects
in life.
In the month of September, 1996 I
joined the Planetary Society. Prudent and practical people would throw up their
hands in despair! They would protest that paying your annual dues was an
imprudent expenditure for a man in my circumstances.
My circumstances in life have improved
considerably. In September of 2016, I will have the honor of being a member for
twenty years. I have always been very proud of what you have accomplished and
new frontiers that you always open. I was honored to have developed a
friendship (from afar most of the time) with Dr Louis D. Friedman.
2/…
Bill
Nye
Page Two
December 20, 2015
Recently I took my wife and our
daughter to see The Martian. Yesterday I went to see Star Wars The
Force Awakens. Not only did I see a great film. I also saw several previews
of high-budget science fiction films coming out in 2016. This morning I was
reading The New York Times book section. I saw that the book The Martian
had been on the best seller list for an astounding 28 weeks. This tells me that
a lot of people all over the world are, as the old saying goes, “putting their hard-earned money where their mouth is” and
showing keen interest in space exploration.
I have one sincere question for you. It
comes from the heart. There is no sarcasm or critical thought in it.
“Why hasn’t
all of this interest in space travel, etc. translated into a ground swell of
support for both manned and unmanned space exploration?”
Please put this one question to everyone
in the office. And keep up the good work!
With kindest
regards,
-Jack
Waldbewohner
Cc; file
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