Glenn Puts a Half-Million New Yorkers Into Orbit

A half-million New Yorkers greeted Sen. John Glenn with American flags and streams of ticker tape on a cloudy Monday morning, celebrating his second voyage into space.

Glenn (D-Ohio) was honored this time for his flight on the space shuttle Discovery, which carried him on a 9-day voyage around the Earth two weeks ago. The celebration was smaller than his first in 1962, but just as enthusiastic.

Glenn’s first ticker-tape parade down the so-called Canyon of Heroes came 36 years ago after his flight on Friendship 7, when 4 million New Yorkers crowded the streets in 31-degree weather to congratulate him. Although there were fewer celebrants this time, they cheered just as loudly, applauded and strained to see him along the same route, up lower Broadway.

During the flight of Discovery, the 77-year-old former fighter pilot underwent several experiments on the effects of microgravity and aging. But what may have been Glenn’s greatest contribution was to revitalize interest in NASA’s upcoming projects.

“[John Glenn] was a hero to us then and he is a hero to us now,” Walter Cronkite, former anchor at CBS News, said at a City Hall ceremony after the parade. “His fortitude will benefit all of us, whether we are men of 82 years or children of 3 or 4. Sen. Glenn’s journey shows that Americans of every age are vital contributors to our society.”

The day began with a breakfast reception for Glenn and other members of the Discovery crew, hosted by the American Museum of Natural History. The museum president announced the construction of a new Center for Earth and Space, the most technologically sophisticated planetarium in the world. Schoolchildren escorted the crew onto the stage.

When Glenn appeared, the guests stood and applauded.

“This country got to be what it is because of a curiosity and willingness to explore,” Glenn told reporters before the parade, “whether it’s in the macro sense of physical exploration across the country and then going into space, or whether it’s micro exploration in laboratories. I’m glad to see people excited about this again. It’s one of the keys to the future of this country.”

During Monday’s parade, Glenn’s wife, Annie, sat beside him in the black convertible. The Ohio senator greeted his fans with a thumbs-up sign.

“It’s such an historic event,” said Victoria Weiss, 79, one of the crowd who came out to see him. “He’s my age and I’m here to egg him on. He gave me a lot of encouragement, telling me with this flight that you don’t have to just be sick when you’re old.”

Before handing Glenn a key to the city, Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani said his mission “has done for spaceflight in the ‘90s what the senator and the original astronauts did in the ‘60s.”

Monday’s ticker-tape parade was the third in the last month. The city honored Chicago Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa on Oct. 17 and the World Series champion New York Yankees six days later. Some wonder if Giuliani is throwing parades to enhance his national profile.

Critics claim that Giuliani has violated the 1st Amendment right to protest. “If you are the Yankees or John Glenn, you can go up the Canyon of Heroes. But if you are critical of Giuliani, you can’t,” said Norman Siegel, an official of the New York Civil Liberties Union, which is representing Housing Works, an AIDS-advocacy group. Housing Works has been denied permission to hold a march on World AIDS Day, Dec. 1, after police said it would be too costly.

The U.S. District Court in Manhattan ruled Monday that the city’s failure to decide in a timely way whether to grant parades was unconstitutional.

“History shows that undue delay gives the city the possibility of denying 1st Amendment rights,” Siegel said.