Posted on 03/02/2009 8:55:57 PM PST by Scotsman
Once upon a time when I was very young, my father and I lay outside on the banks of Lake erie late one hot summer night. Not one manmade light could be seen as far as the eye could see.
But there were lights. Oh, were there lights! Untold millions of them!
I had never seen anything like it before in my young life. I saw the Milky Way like a glorious, twinkly rainbow cutting a huge swath across the entire sky, from horizon to horizon.
I saw the wonders of the universe that night. A night that no matter how hard I tried over the following decades to replicate, I could not.
That was the night I knew that somehow, some way, we were going to the stars. I was going, too. Not as an astronaut, or space explorer out of a science fiction novel, but simply as a visitor, a tourist.
I knew that because I believed it. I believed it because my father told me that is where mankind is going, to the stars.
The next summer, Sputnik was launched.
Struggling through high school, my dream was kept alive as we visited the moon. Surely, I thought, the stars can not be far away. After all, a man just walked on the moon!
Little did I know then, in the Sixties, that walking on the moon would be the high point of mankind's reach. It took almost fourty years for the realization that man would not reach the stars to sink in, but it now finally has.
The amount of money our elected leaders have spent so far on the War on Poverty alone could have funded trillions of dollars in extratarestrial research and development. Could ten trillion dollars and fourty years of dedicated research create the mythical Stargate?
We, or at least I, will never know. My time for dreaming is over.
I fought for this country once, while we were walking on the moon. Who would not fight, I thought, for a country that held out such a dream to it's youth - the same dream I had on that dark night, on that grassy bank of Lake Erie in that magical summer of my father's and my dream.
I am too old to dream like that now. Those sorts of dreams are for the young - who think they are immortal and dreams like that seem attainable in a lifetime.
But I am not too old to fight for my country and the dreams of others - again.
Only this time I will be fighting our own government, for it is that government that has stolen my dream and I am willing to fight so that someone else can have that same dream ...
... and there will be a man someday that sees a different sunrise on a planet as many lightyears away from us as the amount of dollars that government has wasted over those precious, lost decades.
I am ready to fight for a dream forever stolen from me ...
... so that dreams are not ever forever lost, again.
Well, I’m not sure the dream of walking on the stars is more noble than the dream of eradicating poverty.
Myself, I’d like to see free enterprise in charge of space exploration. I don’t see it as a constitutional mandate.
And of course, I believe the best war on poverty would involve far less government, less taxation, less regulation, proper enforcement of contracts, and enforcement of the law - not welfare.
Marie2, no one dreams of eradicating poverty.
Especially young kids. Can you imagine yourself looking up at the stars and being told that for some reason, your dream as a little kid is to eradicate poverty?
Don’t think so.
Actually, I CAN create a scenario like that, but it would be a dream of power, and how to achieve it, by stealing the dreams of mankind.
I appreciate the response though.
It gets the thought process going. :)
mysterio, I have different dreams now.
One of which is that some other little boy someday, will walk on that exotic, far, far distant planet.
My dream now, is to fight to create - REcreate a civilization that could make that dream possible.
No truly, a lot of kids have very “mission of mercy” type dreams.
I often envisioned myself as a medical missionary of some type, spreading healing around to needy people. Florence Nightingale comes to mind. She spent her childhood doctoring little animals and dreaming of being a doctor.
I also daydreamed about taking in unwanted children a lot.
Perhaps boys feel differently, and imagine being on spaceships or fighting big battles, I don’t know.
BTW, I remember the Moon landings when I was very little. Yeah, even though the Bamster says he will follow Bush’s plan to Mars, I’ll believe it when I see it. I’m with you, we need to recreate the nation that can do these things again.
... none of them, you included I'll wager, ever dreamed of a ten trillion dollar black hole War On Poverty bureaucracy that would ultimately CREATE more poverty than it ever eliminated ...
... so far, three generations worth of it.
... none of them, you included I'll wager, ever dreamed of a ten trillion dollar black hole War On Poverty bureaucracy that would ultimately CREATE more poverty than it ever eliminated ...
... so far, three generations worth of it.
Space travel = waste of money
N-Man, in the last half of the last century, about the only entities that had the wherewithall to reach the Moon, and even on to Mars, was government.
Of course, back then, most people lived in social isolation - the only news was on the radio, and as it grew, broadcast TV, and of course, newspapers.
Even telephone calls beyond a few tens of miles were considered long distance and were to be avoided except for truely important things like births and deaths and such like.
Now - or rather at some indefineable point in the future, maybe private enterprise can do a better job. I would prefer that to government, after the last fourty years.
Tagline dittos, too. :)
Aye.
Throughout our history, we Americans roamed the back country in forest and grassland; as children, running around, checking out bugs, chasing butterflies, playing with tadpoles, understanding our world. In my experience, those who lived in such an environment were more resourceful, more resilient than our city-dwellers. Why? Because they had to fix things. When you’re on the farm, there is no calling the handyman. I’m sure our city dwellers had to deal with more social issues, but when push comes to shove, I’d rather have a farmer or a rancher, than a narcissistic half-assed community organizer by my side, when things get rough.
... hmmmm.
Keeping it simple, ever hear of Tang? Start there and come along and dream with me ...
Dream of asteroids the size of mountains made out of starstuff - Iron, Nickle, most of the southern half of the Periodic Table.
Dream of our DNA being scattered amongst the stars. Either we do the scattering, or the sun will do it for us, eventually.
It is in Man's very nature to be free, and the stars are waiting for free men to reach them.
Show me how the War on Poverty does that.
Nutz. Show me how the War on Poverty could even CREATE a new orange drink.
... Star Farmer ...
The visions that conjures up!
THAT is our destiny, and our destination.
Further!
Scotsman, that was heart-stirring, and inspirational. I also saw and felt all of the same things that you did, as a child in the 60’s.
When my family lived on Okinawa in the mid-sixties, we had an island-wide power failure one night. It was summertime, and I can still remember the splendor of the sky that night. It was exactly as you described it. Truly awe inspiring.
I have also been very disappointed that our nation essentially abandoned the forward progress of manned exploration of the solar system. As a kid, I imagined that by the dawn of the 21st century we would have well established colonies on the moon, Mars, and maybe even far beyond that.
Sadly, all of that wonderful adventure hasn’t happened in my lifetime, but I do know that the last forty years is simply a lull in the story of space faring. One day, it will barely rate a mention in mankind’s great history.
Like you, I believe it’s now my duty to fight for the survival of this great nation, so that little dreamers of today can one day walk the dusty plains of far off worlds.
What a cruel, stupid, and ignorant comment to make on this thread. The least you could do is present a reasoned argument for your invalidative little equation.
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