Patt Morrison for Mon 7/20/09

PATT MORRISON SCHEDULE

Monday, July 20, 2009

 

1:00 – 1:30

OPEN

 

1:30 - 1:40

Racial Politics Meets Sexuality Politics: NAACP & Same-Sex Marriage

The conventional wisdom here in California is that conservative-leaning African American voters helped the same-sex marriage ban Proposition 8 win approval last year, and yet the state NAACP came out against Prop. 8.  Now there’s a civil war, of sorts, underway in the NAACP and other African American civil groups about the future stance on gay marriage.  What will be the outcome when racial political meets the politics of sexuality?

 

Guests:

UNCONFIRMED - DO NOT PROMOTE THIS GUEST

Alice Huffman, president of the California NAACP & member of the NAACP’s national board

CALL HER: 

 

Rev. Eric Lee, president & CEO of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Los Angeles

CALL HIM: 

 

2:00 – 2:30

OPEN

 

2:30 – 2:40

The Unsung Hero's of Apollo: Splashdown!

40 Years ago today, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men to walk on the moon. But the astronauts entrusted their lives to 400,000 unsung heroes: the brilliant scientists, engineers and technicians who made the trip possible. Charles Lowry was just one of those heroes...he was an engineering manager working in Downey at North American Aviation. He developed the parachutes that brought the command module down to a safe splash landing. As with every part of the moon mission, the engineering challenges were huge--just as the solutions were often brilliant and elegant. Lowry is currently working on the new moon ship, the Orion. But he remembers with pride his contribution to sending a man to the moon and, in his case, returning him safely to the Earth.

 

Guests:

Charles Lowry, he was engineering manager at North American Aviation (which became Rockwell and is now Boeing). He worked in Downey on the earth landing systems on the command module on the Apollo mission (meaning parachutes, ordinance for the separation system). Now he's working with a parachute contractor on Orion (the new Apollo).

Call him @

 

 

2:40 – 3:00

Will We Ever Get to Mars?

Be honest, who here thinks the international space station is as exciting as manned missions to the Moon and Mars? It seemed that people paid 140 seconds or less attention to the first twitter from space. What happened to NASA’s ability to unite the nation in front of TVs and radios while they counted down? We talk about the public perception of NASA and why it is going to take them another decade to get back to the Moon.

 

Guests:

Pat Duggins, (DUH-gins) resident NASA expert at NPR affiliate WMFE in Florida, and author of “The Final Countdown: NASA and the End of the Space Shuttle Program.”

Via ISDN

Back up Cell – 407-694-6421