The Final Frontier As Group Therapy

Remember when NASA was about going to the moon, giant steps for mankind, space walks, national pride, John Glenn and all “the right stuff?” I remember when we were inspired by what we saw on television and wanted to “get into science and math” so we could grow up and walk on the moon, Mars or a galaxy far, far away.

Well, in case you were worried that the President had no current vision for NASA, read the words of NASA Administrator, Charles Bolden.

“When I became the NASA administrator — or before I became the NASA administrator — [President Obama] charged me with three things. One was he wanted me to help re-inspire children to want to get into science and math, he wanted me to expand our international relationships, and third, and perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science … and math and engineering.”

This is going to be the most AWESOME motivational seminar ever! With an operating budget of almost $18-billion, close to 18,000 employees, and tens of thousands of workers in the private sector that act as support in NASA’s programs, the sky is the limit…literally.

The United States space program now exists to spread a balm on the hurt feelings of nations and cultures that have lagged behind the United States in scientific development.

NASA’s manned exploration programs are cancelled. America’s military space efforts have fallen behind due to lack of funding. So, this is now what the best of America’s scientific minds are to be charged with….. the task of making a billion people feel better about themselves.

Obama is in apology mode again for American achievement and American greatness. He seems to believe we've achieved enough or too much at the expense of nations that have achieved little for centuries and we now need to make them feel like we couldn't have done it without them.

Being a teacher I try very hard to instill in my students that the way you feel good about yourself is to achieve something worthwhile. The bedrock of self-esteem is genuine achievement.

Self esteem is justified only where a person has done the hard work of developing a self worthy to be esteemed. Which returns me to NASA Administrator Charles Bolden’s foremost mission in 2010.

A great part of the Muslim world has the money, the brains, and the ability to explore space. What they have lacked is the desire to do so.

We cannot impart the desire to achieve into a culture. That is their job. If Muslims want to feel good about themselves then they need to get up off their petro-dollars and DO SOMETHING IN SPACE!

In the words of George Carlin:
“Most people with low self-esteem have earned it”.

President Kennedy, in May of 1961 before a joint session of Congress, said the following:

“Finally, if we are to win the battle that is now going on around the world between freedom and tyranny, the dramatic achievements in space which occurred in recent weeks should have made clear to us all, as did the Sputnik in 1957, the impact of this adventure on the minds of men everywhere, who are attempting to make a determination of which road they should take… Now it is time to take longer strides–time for a great new American enterprise–time for this nation to take a clearly leading role in space achievement, which in many ways may hold the key to our future on earth…
…..For while we cannot guarantee that we shall one day be first, we can guarantee that any failure to make this effort will make us last…… But this is not merely a race. Space is open to us now; and our eagerness to share its meaning is not governed by the efforts of others. We go into space because whatever mankind must undertake, free men must fully share.”
Well said Mr. President....