The last man on the moon left there when I was four years old and I had just turned one when Armstrong made his famous steps,but I have always felt somewhat shortchanged by just missing those times when our country took the lead in doing what will not be surpassed until the day that man walks on Mars.The Apollo program was not just about the Moon or even all about the Cold War race,but it put a lot of people to work in many different facets of the program that pumped massive amounts of money into the economy along with a wave of innovation that this country truly has not seen since the program ended.
As much as I believe in space exploration and the work that NASA does and would wholeheartedly support an infusion of dollars into both NASA and the myriad of companies that would be helped by a program that supported another program,I would be just as pleased to see other potential uses of a national "full court press" that would see the country invest in itself.
I know that "green energy" is a somewhat vague term,but couldn't we go a long way into curbing the oil price war,if we truly jumped into changing our transportation needs into ones that if not cleaner,would at least be less dependent on others for other energy needs?
Until that time comes,the infrastructure needs still exists,so if our country firmed these issues up and put people to work fixing them up as well as beginning the development that will affect future development such as heated highways in cold weather areas that would turn snow and ice into just rainy highways for example.
What about investing in our people as well?
Could there not be public universities that could be used to develop specialized skills for our young people?
I know there are various ways to pay for an education,but what about colleges that trade an education with no debt in return for a commitment of an time period working a job of need in which you would still be able to make a living without being forced to pay a choking debt?
Tell me that we do not need teachers,policemen,firefighters,doctors/nurses etc and tell me again why people that could contribute so much to our country would not be willing to do their job have to often look elsewhere in order to make the dollars work out?
Why not another Apollo program based around stopping a catastrophe such as stopping a asteroid from smashing into Earth?
Shouldn't an event that could end life as we know it be prepared for?
I would suspect that figuring out a defense system for this and then the resulting process from various companies could wind up being quite lucrative and yet putting an astonishing amount of people to work,but yet we are devoting very little to this area that could be our one shot of avoiding a devastation that would change the Earth.
These are just a few things that would be worth investing in both the results and the people that would be working on them,if we would just put the throttle to the maximum and show that we can do anything-provided the resources were there to take us where we need to.
The Apollo program was just one indication of this and with the proper vision and the attitude,it can be done again-IF we as a country can just have the ability to look forward and not come up with why we cannot.
Allow me to quote Edward Kennedy at the funeral of his brother-Senator Robert Kennedy and think about how someone thinking like this could go so far in our planning-
'Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not.'"
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