Not So Inspiring

Well, now that we have read the words of President Kennedy, maybe we can find something similarly inspiring from our current President. Or maybe not. As Douglas MacKinnon notes in his editorial, President Obama is not so keen on space and, as a result, "...the promise of space may be lost to us for decades." What did Obama say? Back in 2007 then-Senator Obama said, as part of proposing cuts to NASA's budget, "We're not going to have the engineers and scientists to continue space exploration if we don't have kids who are able to read, write and compute." While I concur that the education of the next generation of America is critical, this does not replace the need for a space program but rather gives it new energy. Such national projects as a mission to another planet is what can inspire kids to achieve great things. It's not one or the other, but instead a combination of efforts (i.e. education, safety-nets, important national achievements, etc.) that can make a nation great. I hope now-President Obama realizes this.