In 1985, I was proud to have written a song that was taken aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery. The song is the story of a woman astronaut circling the Earth, seeing how beautiful and peaceful it looked from 200 miles in space.
Then in December of that year, I had a conversation with Christa McAuliffe, who was to be the first teacher in space. She had me bring a copy of the song to her home in Concord, New Hampshire. She was looking for a special song to share with the children of the world in her lesson.
Sadly, she perished in the Space Shuttle Challenger accident after liftoff. In the song, the astronaut wonders whether we would win or lose at all.
Many of us wonder the same thing, with all the civil strife and environmental challenges we face. So, just ahead of Monday’s Earth Day, I want to share “Come in Planet Earth Are You Listening” in hopes that we humans will choose wisely on this third planet from the sun.
The song was recorded by El Paso native Karen Taylor-Good in English, Spanish, French, Russian, Chinese, Japanese and German.
