Thank you Mr Kennedy

[D_B]

John F Kennedy's speach to congress, May 25th 1961

" We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too."

" We set sail on this new sea because there is new knowledge to be gained, and new rights to be won, and they must be won and used for the progress of all people. For space science, like nuclear science and all technology, has no conscience of its own. Whether it will become a force for good or ill depends on man, and only if the United States occupies a position of pre-eminence can we help decide whether this new ocean will be a sea of peace or a new terrifying theater of war. I do not say the we should or will go unprotected against the hostile misuse of space any more than we go unprotected against the hostile use of land or sea, but I do say that space can be explored and mastered without feeding the fires of war, without repeating the mistakes that man has made in extending his writ around this globe of ours."



Thank you Mr Kennedy

[D_B]

" I realize that this is in some measure an act of faith and vision, for we do not now know what benefits await us. But if I were to say, my fellow citizens, that we shall send to the moon, 240,000 miles away from the control station in Houston, a giant rocket more than 300 feet tall, the length of this football field, made of new metal alloys, some of which have not yet been invented, capable of standing heat and stresses several times more than have ever been experienced, fitted together with a precision better than the finest watch, carrying all the equipment needed for propulsion, guidance, control, communications, food and survival, on an untried mission, to an unknown celestial body, and then return it safely to earth, re-entering the atmosphere at speeds of over 25,000 miles per hour, causing heat about half that of the temperature of the sun--almost as hot as it is here today--and do all this, and do it right, and do it first before this decade is out--then we must be bold."


John F Kennedy's address to Rice University 1962



... imagine ... a leader convincing their governing body, and their whole nation, to stand behind such an unknown undertaking

[Insta-Gator]

I remember, as a boy, watching every space launch. It was the ultimate in reality TV; true life or death.

Do we need a stronger America or do we just need a worthy challenge?

[D_B]

[drbill]

Kennedy certainly inspired me as a young junior high student who came out of a solid Republican community. While he certainly had his faults, many of which were kept from us at the time, he got us moving in a positive direction. I had hoped Obama might be of the same cloth, but am not overly impressed so far. We need to get back to challenges like this that help build our national spirit and stop tearing it down with our current militaristic nonsense and interventionism.