Posts Tagged ‘man on the moon’
So now we hear Barack Obama has been going around trying to sound the reasonable moderate, saying:
“I believe what Republican Abraham Lincoln believed: That government should do for people only what they cannot do better by themselves, and no more.”
Well that’s wonderful that you say you believe that, too bad your actions show differently. Truth is, there isn’t a problem in America whose solution you didn’t try to reach with either more government spending, more government regulation, or both.
I’m not a government hater, the Manhattan Project involved 130,000 people at over 30 sites across the U.S., Canada and the U.K. and cost the equivalent of over $25 Billion in 2012 dollars, as ambitious a government project as there has ever been, but imagine the horrors of a world where the Nazis or Soviets had built the atomic bomb first and held the entire world hostage with it.
The Apollo missions were a government funded program and to me, NASA putting a man on the moon was the greatest exploration, the greatest adventure and the greatest technological achievement in mankind’s history, especially when you consider the astronaut’s lives at stake and the major bravado of doing it all with the kind of technology that was available in the 1960s. It showed the world, Capitalism wins, Communism fails. Over 42 years later and no other country has still managed to duplicate that feat. It’s something I wish I’d been old enough to witness first hand and celebrate. To have watched it live, when Neil Armstrong stepped foot on the moon, I imagine the way it felt to celebrate that American achievement was probably like the USA’s Miracle on Ice in 1980 . . . times ten. Or twenty.
So it’s not like I don’t celebrate the great things our government can do. You know, little things like defeating Nazism and winning the Cold War, making sure those two evil regimes could not succeed in enslaving the world, saving South Korea from being overrun by the North and sparing half the nation from having to endure the hell that is life in North Korea. I’m proud to see the American government providing the largest share of aid for disaster victims, first on the scene at almost any corner of the world. Then of course, there’s everything we benefit from here at home with the government building roads, providing police and fire services, and the many social programs which give a good account in “judging a government by how they help those most in need”, but when I hear Obama quoting Lincoln and saying, “Government should do for people only what they cannot do better by themselves, and no more,” it’s as if he thinks we’ll be so memorized by his oratory skills that we’ll hear what he says and not watch what he does.
The one time, the one time that I can think of Obama not going with more government as the grand solution to everything route?
It was after the $787 billion “stimulus” was rushed through Congress and there was money for every pet project and every government agency under the sun, but no love for NASA. Even with the rising unemployment and jobs that could have been easily saved, it was layoffs for NASA, Constellation program cancelled, no plan for a return to the moon or any kind of post-Shuttle America and our next great leap forward in space. It’s the one time Obama gets frugal as he decides to leave the bulk of space exploration to the private sector, forcing NASA for the foreseeable future to have to hitch a ride with Putin’s Cosmonauts any time we want to make it back to space.
And for the rest of America? No chance for the people of the country to come together and celebrate and take pride in another great NASA achievement in space.
For the guy whose wife once said during the 2008 campaign, “For the first time in my adult lifetime, I’m really proud of my country,” perhaps this should be no surprise after all.
Part 2: In Gov We Trust
Atlantis Returns from the Final Space Shuttle Mission
With the Space Shuttle Atlantis touching down today, the 135th and final mission marks the end of the era of America’s Space Shuttle Orbiters. The accomplishments were great, the deployment and subsequent repair of the Hubble Space Telescope, which provided views of the universe unimaginable from Earth’s atmosphere, the building of the International Space Station, the greatest cooperative effort in space history, but the payloads were borne almost entirely by the Space Shuttles, and 180 other satellites and payloads brought into orbit by the shuttles.
The costs were great as well – $209 billion dollars from development to retirement, and of course, the tragic loss of fourteen astronauts in the Challenger and Columbia disasters.
So sad to see thousands of workers at NASA are headed for the unemployment line with the end of the mission. By the White House’s own numbers, the $666 billion in stimulus money spent so far has created or saved jobs to the tune of $278,000 per job, but we couldn’t find enough pocket change to keep America in space and keep the workers at NASA busy and employed.
A conversation I had with a friend on Facebook a few months back . . .
J.G. — Are you pro space exploration?
M.C. — Yeah, and was very sad to see out of 3/4 trillion in “stimulus” spending, this administration couldn’t spare a dime for NASA.
J.G. — I love nasa, but there is a time to spend and a time to save. You would have critisized him for spending money on nasa if he had!
M.C. — Not true. I was sitting there thinking these exact thoughts, “All this money to throw around on pork spending projects and not a dime for NASA.” You know the term, Bucket List, the stuff you vow to do before you kick the bucket, well I have one thing on there I have absolutely no control over, but I want to see man walk on Mars before I die. That’s become more and more remote now thanks to Obama’s priorities. And you know why I think he had money for everything under the sun, but not NASA? Because NASA gives us something that WE can be proud of as AMERICANS. He would rather share those accomplishments with the global community. We’re shutting down the Space Shuttle, have no plans for any American achievements and now if we want to get out into space, we have to hitch a ride with the Euros or the Commies.
CHANGE.
J.G. — Its Obama’s fault that “you think” man wont walk on mars before you die……now ive heard everything. I dont even know what to say to that. I would imagine that if it was that big of a deal to you, that the fact that a human bieng did infact set foot on the red planet, we as HUMANS would celebrate as one. Not because it was an american…unless ofcourse its just never going to be as impressive otherwise.
M.C. — I would wish it would be an American, hell yes, just the same as you take special pride in seeing your own family do great things, yes, I would much rather it be an American.
Nothing wrong with being a nationalist and rooting for your home country to do great things. Taking pride in the achievements of humanity is all fine and great, but after my own immediate family, I feel very much connected to what I consider my extended family – the American Family. Just the same as you take special pride in the accomplishments of your father, your mother, your brothers, your sisters, I also take much more pride in the accomplishments of Americans than I ever would in the doings of people from any other corner of the globe.
Over 42 years later, no nation on Earth has managed to duplicate the American accomplishment of stepping foot on the moon, and I damn sure am rooting for that first footstep on Mars to be an American footstep.