Random Thoughts From the Morning Paper on July 22, 2011

The following items are thoughts from my reading of this morning’s New York Times (Vol. CLX…No. 55,474)

Re: Obama Closes in on Deal for Cuts in Boehner Talks (page A1 and A12)
There is a real struggle over the size and appropriate function of government fueling the disagreements between Republicans (inclusive of their “Tea Party” faction) and Democrats that imperils the current budget discussions. Were the implications not so serious it would almost be farcical that the party that refers to Jefferson as one of its founding fathers favors larger, more intrusive governmental actions with preservation of federal entitlement programs and higher taxes and the party of Lincoln seeks smaller central government and greater authority for local and state governments with what amounts to a “scorched earth policy” to deny the party in power the resources it needs to address social, environmental and international policy issues.


Re: Shuttle Ends Its Final Voyage and an Era in Space (page A3)
I would hope that, in the absence of a large national space initiative America does not lose sight of the importance of national programs that can fuel the imagination of youth and stimulate both the educational and business sectors of the economy. Private efforts (NY Times; In a Private Race to the Moon, Flights of Fancy Are in the Air pages A1 and A3) are all well and good; however, their impact on the larger population will be minimal. Indeed, they may accelerate the growing chasm between the highly educated, financially wealthy, “empowered” segments of our republic and those millions who lack the access and resources to participate in private efforts. Space exploration is still very much in its infancy. Accountability within national efforts is to the populace; however, there is no parallel requirement for accountability among those who would seek to exploit space travel for their own corporate objectives in the face of competition with other private contractors. The great marketing mill of the world will turn private efforts into non-stop opportunities to attract investment and we have recently been treated to the bitter taste of the fare that attracts the financial markets. One of America’s real needs is a new and very public space initiative. There will be the naysayers who will state that our urban infrastructure and road systems are so much in need of repair that we cannot afford such and effort now. To those people I would submit that since 1955 the United States has added the interstate highway system, most of the urban infrastructure that exists today and 150 million people to its population in addition to successfully completing the Explorer I, Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, and Space Shuttle programs.
Most of my childhood was bracketed by America’s commitment to successfully place a man-made satellite into orbit and to land a man of the moon. I was the first kid on my block with a model of a Saturn V rocket that towered nearly three feet high in my bed room! My childhood days were filled in conversations with friends about the flights of Alan Shepard and John Glenn and, later, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) programs: Mercury, Gemini and Apollo rekindled our link with the history for the foundations of Western culture while providing a moniker to attach our hopes for future achievement in a mission that was bigger than any ever accomplished in human history. I am aware that all of these required the input of private contractors but the focus upon a national (not corporate) objective was paramount.
Late in the evening of July 20, 1969, I stood behind my grandfather’s chair in the little North Carolina town of Southport looking at a small black and white television screen as Neil Armstrong took his “…one giant leap for mankind”. The family oral history was that my grandfather’s father had been the head of the Kitty Hawk, NC lifesaving station whose crew had helped the Wright brothers to carry their plane to the top of a sand dune at Kill Devil Hills. I could feel “goose bumps” along my body in the realization that the aged man in front of me was witnessing the culmination of the journey that had begun on that cool December day in 1903. For me it was a moment of joy, reassurance and rededication to set lofty goals in the hopes that, through great effort, some day they might be realized. My nation had experienced many failures along the way but had never given up the ultimate goal. As a child I had learned two valuable lessons from our space efforts. The first was to set high standards and goals. The second was to treat failure as an opportunity to learn how not to do something so as to gain greater insight as to do the right thing that would help me to accomplish the goal. Not once did I think of any commercial concern and the only patches and logos on the space craft and the uniforms of the participants read: “United States of America”!