Neil Armstrong's first footstep on the Moon was the culmination of of a project set in motion by John F. Kennedy on September 12th, 1962 in a speech given at Rice University.
We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade...
This effort, successful less than seven years later on July 20th, 1969, must rank as the most incredible technological achievement of Man. The aqueducts of Rome, the Manhattan Project, and the landing of rovers on another planet (to name just a few) are all amazing achievements. But to send men to the Moon and back in seven years -- barely being able to put men in orbit when the project was announced, enduring a disasterous fire during Gemini, and using computer technology less powerful than that which I am writing this piece -- is truly astounding.
That it was likely achieved before its time can be seen in the fact that the effort has not yet been duplicated, yet alone surpassed. There are no Moon colonies, no footsteps have been stamped in moondust since 1972, no person has gone beyond the reach of the Earth's gravity either, and only the barest outlines of plans to send a living being to Mars exist.
Early in this new millenium, things seemed about to change. In January of 2008 Caroline Kennedy penned an op-ed in the New York Times comparing our current President with her father.
I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them. But for the first time, I believe I have found the man who could be that president -- not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans.
Alas, that vision of someone who could lead the nation into greater things, that vision that drove Caroline Kennedy and others like myself to support Senator Obama, has not come to pass.
Perhaps it is simply the times we live in. Perhaps we as a people are no longer capable of being inspired. Whatever the reason, the United States, neither through its government nor its industry nor its social spirit, is engaged in -- or seems to have any chance in the near future of engaging in -- fullfilling a dream, reaching a goal, or achieving something we can collectively be proud of. Many are happy to keep the status quo, while as many or more want to roll it back. Few there are who believe we should reach for the stars.
The President has repeatedly called for a better tomorrow, but he has never been able to articulate with it a vision that managed to capture the attention of the American people.
It dismays me that an America which looked up with pride at the Moon in 1969 has come to this.
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves...
