The
cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy!
H.
L. Mencken, Notes on Democracy, 1926
This Monday, May 5th, will
mark the 53rd anniversary of America’s entrance into the final
frontier of manned space exploration.
Alan B. Shepard flew America’s first
manned spaceflight in his spacecraft christened Freedom 7, in honor of the
history of freedom this nation has offered to the hopes and aspirations of
mankind. The ‘7’ was to commemorate the initial 7 astronauts chosen for the space
program.
The Mercury series of flights was active
from May 1961 to May 1963; included were these seven original American
astronauts: Alan Shepard, Gus Grissom, John Glenn, Scott Carpenter, Wally
Schirra, Gordon Cooper, and Deke Slayton.
The editor of the Madison Conservative
has a particularly personal connection to the American space program, and so on
this anniversary of the first manned flight, we would like to make a point
about NASA, America, this administration and the future of the space program.
Any discussion of the space program
must begin with those who gave the ultimate sacrifice in the pursuit of
knowledge.
To wit:
A cabin fire during a launch rehearsal
test on January 27 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 34 killed
all three crew members of Apollo I—Command Pilot Virgil I. "Gus"
Grissom, Senior Pilot Edward H. White II and Pilot Roger B. Chaffee. These
three men were the first casualties of Americas’ space program, but they would
heartbreakingly not be the last.
The explosion on January 28, 1986 resulted
in the death of all seven crewmembers of the Space Shuttle Challenger. It was
the first of two shuttles to be destroyed. The
Space Shuttle Columbia disaster occurred on February 1, 2003, when Columbia disintegrated over Texas and
Louisiana as it reentered Earth's atmosphere, killing all seven crewmembers.
These explorers must forever remain
amongst this nations honored brave who paid the ultimate price.
It is also critical to remember the
administration and the president who inspired a nation to shoot for the stars,
who knew that the best and brightest of America included all of America.
This well-known excerpt is from
President John Kennedy’s address before
a joint session of Congress May 25, 1961, barely three weeks after Shepard’s
historic flight:
First, I believe that this nation
should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of
landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth
After John Glenn’s
successful February 20th 1962 orbital flight, President Kennedy
delivered a stirring and inspirational address, excerpted below, to Rice
University, in Houston, Texas on September 12, 1962, making clear the intent of
America and her future in space.
We
choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the
other things, not only because they are easy, but because they are hard, because
that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and
skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are
unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.
The growth
of our science and education will be enriched by new knowledge of our universe
and environment, by new techniques of learning and mapping and observation, by
new tools and computers for industry, medicine, the home as well as the school.
Technical institutions, such as Rice, will reap the harvest of these gains.
And
finally, the space effort itself, while still in its infancy, has already
created a great number of new companies, and tens of thousands of new jobs.
Space and related industries are generating new demands in investment and
skilled personnel, and this city and this State, and this region, will share
greatly in this growth. What was once the furthest outpost on the old frontier
of the West will be the furthest outpost on the new frontier of science and space.
Houston, your City of Houston, with its Manned Spacecraft Center, will become
the heart of a large scientific and engineering community.
Please read those two excerpts from President
Kennedy again. They showed vision, spoke to the greatness of America, and
showed a path forward for the nation. He dreamed big, and did so in a confident
manner. There were no real politics involved in these speeches – despite the
budgetary requests to fund the exploration of space – but consider all that the American Space program
has given to this nation and to this planet.
For example, this post is being written on a MAC
laptop that has more computer power than the Apollo 11 spacecraft that landed
on the moon!
All the above being duly noted, it should be
appalling to this nation that our manned space explorations now rest on the
good graces of the Russians, as they are now providing the space taxi service
to the hitchhiking Americans.
This nation has no independent means of delivering
man to space.
It is no secret that the Madison Conservative has
deep political and philosophical differences with the Obama administration.
The stark differences between President Obama’s
dreams for America and President Kennedy’s outlook encapsulate those
differences for a national agenda in a rather pithy observation;
President Kennedy spoke of America shooting for and
reaching the stars.
President Obama's major domestic policy agenda is to
correct ‘income inequality’ and to do so by working to raise the minimum wage
of $7.25 to $10.10 by 2015.
Surely a goal that will stir the hearts and minds
of America.
America must learn to dream big again. The American
people must demand so of their elected leaders.
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