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Conservative
Commentary
by Ed Donath
December 26, 2011 |
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Defending the right to rant! |
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Moonwalking then and now. (originally
published 4/22/11)
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On May 25, 1961
in an address to a joint session of Congress President
John F. Kennedy
challenged the USA to
"...land a man on the Moon by the
end of the decade."
Americans of all ages are
familiar with both this famous JFK quote and the subsequent
Neil Armstrong speechlet:
"This
is one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind..."
issued
by the astronaut from the
lunar surface with nearly six months still left on JFK's
End-of-Decade Shot Clock.
The part of
Kennedy's moonwalk challenge that most Americans have
forgotten (or, more likely, were never
taught) is that the
essential reason for his asking us to undertake this
monumental task was not for the technological advancements
that would accrue from a ramped-up space exploration program
nor from the increased national pride and morale but, in
JFK's own words within the same address, to
"...catch up to and overtake the Soviet Union in the
space race."
Even
if the mission had not been fully accomplished before the
end of the Sixties, Project Apollo would, nonetheless, have
been hailed as a huge and prideful success -- especially in
light of the overcoming of tragic setbacks, not the least of
which was the Kennedy assassination. By1969, as a result of
the innumerable scientific, medical and technological
advancements it had already provided, the program stood as
proof that we had, indeed, overtaken the Soviet Union not
only in the space race but in the overall race for
supremacy.
Equally important, our booming aerospace industry, its
countless jobs, the high quality of those employment
opportunities and the national excitement that NASA and
aerospace companies had created were, perhaps, the only
bridge across that infamous Viet Nam Era Generation Gap.
Furthermore, while the USSR continued to make advancements
in rocket science and space station technology, the Kremlin,
believing that American private sector investment and
ingenuity would certainly fulfill Kennedy's prophesy, all
but conceded the moon race to the USA and never posed a
major threat to the Kennedy vision. The Apollo Program's
success was, in that sense, one of the many Cold War battle
victories of capitalism over socialism.
While NASA was and continues to be a sizable bureaucracy,
its issuing of contracts rather than entitlements makes it a
good economic stimulator. This is true in spite of the
government wastefulness that liberals are quick to criticize
in NASA and the military but snail slow to acknowledge when
similar over-spending and corruption are discovered in their
beloved social programs.
Incidentally, many of LBJ's Great Society bureaucracies were
championed by surviving members of the extended Kennedy Clan
eager to capitalize on JFK's Democrat image while ignoring
his fiscal conservatism, militarism and sharp-edged
rhetorical style.
Other than our enemy, the Soviet Union, no other entities
-- not
corporations, nor individuals nor political groups -- were
ever demonized by the Kennedy/Johnson administrations.
Republican politicians, including Richard M. Nixon
(who held office on the day
"the Eagle has landed" was broadcast to the
farthest corners of the earth by the American mainstream
media),
were content to be equal partners in JFK's nationalistic
adventure.
We are stagnant today because we are no longer in a race to
out-produce any of our rivals in any context -- certainly
not those who are hell-bent on stealing what is rightfully
ours. While the list of our avowed enemies has grown
exponentially, political correctness has elevated these
hostile governments to the level of "neighbor nations."
While our economy goes begging for a common cause to rally
industry (and despite our
possession of the same natural resources we had available to
us in 1961 with a technologically enhanced ability to access
them) our
government discourages private sector growth through
over-taxation and over-regulation.
While
our nation's wealth, influence, prestige and power continue
to shrink, the need for inspirational, unifying leadership
is greater than ever. Instead, we have divisiveness from
the top down. Moonwalking is now nothing more than a
choreographed form of walking backward.
Post
Script - 8/31/11:
In
effect restarting the Cold War, notably coincidental with
the Space Shuttle program's final mission, Russian
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was emboldened to criticize
America and refer to the USA as a
"parasite nation." In
addition to the sad fact that our astronauts are now
relegated to hitching rides to the space station -- if
the Russians will even allow it -- our astronauts will occupy the
back seat of the Soyuz bus in any future joint missions.
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