GOING TO MARS

Watching The space shuttle Discovery come to a safe landing is
certainly a positive thing to see, in a time where good news is hard
to find. But if you look back in history, you will realize that it is
symbolic of how far America has declined since it's zenith in the
1950's and early 1960's. Back then we were unquestionably the
strongest nation in the world economically and militarily, and while
the same forces were at work attempting to dismantle it, they had yet
to achive the level of "success" they have today. We were reaching
for the moon, Mars and beyond. We were the first to land a man on the
moon, and no-one has been there since. Now we are sending up 30 year
old space shuttles to briefly orbit the earth and then return, hoping
they don't explode at launch, or disintigrate on re-entry.

It's similarity to the state of America today is undeniable, a nation
that is falling apart faster than the heat tiles are coming off the
shuttle. America, frayed, beat up, fighting a poorly managed war that
never should have been, costing hundreds of billions of dollars, and
thousands of lives, bringing more instabilty to the middle east, not
less. Our borders are open sores with Bush rolling out the red carpet
for every illegal that meanders over it. Our Social Security system
is going broke for future generations, yet Bush sends $50 billion of
your money to Africa for aid, most of which will fall into the hands
of two bit African dictators.

If America wanted to do something impressive for a change, if these
so-called leaders wanted to set a lofty goal, like say go to Mars, I
could understand it. But NASA says that it's future plans only
include more shuttle flights, and maybe another trip to the moon.
Talk about taking a step backward. If in 1970 after we reached the
moon, we put all the resources allocated to NASA to launch a mission
to Mars, we would have probably reached it by 1980. When you set a
goal, and you focus all your brainpower and financial power onto it,
you come up with new technology and ideas you would otherwise have
never discovered. That was one of the benefits of setting a goal of
landing on the moon. Instead of wasting taxpayers dollars on
unessesary wars, foreign aid to a bunch of poorly run dictatorships,
or giving welfare to illegals, why don't we force these bloodsuckers
to do something useful with our hard earned money? While I'm no fan
of government run agencies like NASA, if they kept the costs within
reason, and put all their skill into a manned Mars mission, I think
the related technology improvements, and the prestige America would
gain from such a mission would likely be worth the costs.