'We choose to go to the moon'

This attitude is what makes America great and other countries
mediocre!

Kennedy's speach in 1962.

"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 organise 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."

Jack:

This attitude is what makes America great and other countries
mediocre!

What a load of jingoistic nonsense!

Davoud

--
usenet *at* davidillig dawt cawm

"Jack" wrote in message
...
This attitude is what makes America great and other countries
mediocre!

Kennedy's speach in 1962.

------------cut------------------------------------

That should be ".... what (used to make) America great and other countried
mediocre!". America is now on the verge of collapse due to corrupt
political/ economic systems (greed), poor morals, and selfishness. It
probably won't be the US that reaches the moon again, but some country who
really needs to go.

Jack wrote:

This attitude is what makes America great and other countries
mediocre!

Really depends how you define great. Great wealth, sure. Great civil
rights, yep. Great innovation, sure. All those things have their
exceptions, though.

Kennedy's speach in 1962.

"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 organise 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."

Yep, Ted Sorenson was a heck of a speech writer, wasn't he?

Nevertheless, this had less to do with a desire to explore space and
more to do with getting Congress to fund a public spectacle to a) show
the world that the US was better than the Soviet Union, and b)
reassure the American population that they were more capable than the
Soviets (they already knew they were better).

In that sense, the Apollo program did its job splendidly.
--
Dave

"Jack" wrote in message
...
to win." This attitude is what makes America great and other countries
mediocre!

Kennedy's speach in 1962.

"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 organise 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

Kennedy couldn't care less about going to the Moon or space until
the Bay of Pigs debacle. Then he needed to make a face saving let's beat the
Ruskies at something move. And, considering that LBJ was far more
interested in
space and as a lawmaker one has to wonder if we would have gotten to
the Moon if JFK had lived.

And talk about Mediocrity. We have Amtrak Acela. France has TGV.
We have GM and Chrysler. Japan has Toyota and Honda. We spend
$8000 per year per person on the medical industry with 15% uninsured and
another 15% underinsured. Other OECD nations spend half what we spend
cover everyone even with the waste in their systems. And, when Obama and
congress get through doing what is "hard" in passing medical insurance
mandate
legislation we have simply dragged more people into the same cost bloated
system.

Jingoism. Leave home without it.

On Mon, 13 Jul 2009 04:13:50 -0700 (PDT), Jack
wrote:

This attitude is what makes America great and other countries
mediocre!

This was a great achievement, which Americans should rightly be proud
of. But I fail to see how you can conclude that our ability to do so
(funded by Cold War paranoia) somehow makes other countries "mediocre".
Many other countries have achieved great things that we have not been
capable of.
_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com

Jack wrote:
This attitude is what makes America great and other countries
mediocre!

You misunderstand the intention... which was to beat the russians
militarily in space.

On the positive side, we learned something about the chemistry
of the moon and we saw the earth in a new perspective.


Kennedy's speach (sic) in 1962.

"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 organise 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."

Misquoted, Jack! See: http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/jfk-space.htm


It only happened because of Germany and WW11 rocketry genius Werner von
Braun.
Russia had the resources too but they squandered rhose resources. The US is
probably still
paying for the whole 60's and early 70's space program too.

On Mon, 13 Jul 2009 14:52:16 GMT, "Michael Toms"
wrote:

The US is
probably still
paying for the whole 60's and early 70's space program too.

That's an interesting question, and one I'm sure would be extremely
difficult to fully analyze. However, I suspect that the American
investment in space has paid itself back many times over, so in terms of
the big picture we aren't still paying for anything.
_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com

On Jul 13, 8:52*am, "Michael Toms" wrote:
The US is
probably still
paying for the whole 60's and early 70's space program too.

The Minuteman missile program probably did more for the tax revenues
the U.S. gets from Intel than the Apollo space program, it's true...

John Savard

On Jul 13, 5:13*am, Jack wrote:
This attitude is what makes America great and other countries
mediocre!

Well, I can hardly take this as a personal insult. We Canadians
already knew that _our_ country was mediocre, even if it's a great
place to live, like New Zealand.


Of course, even the U.S. could use some more of that attitude today.
But, try as I might, I can't really see a non-mediocre country I'd
like to point to in order to refute your statement.

Well, maybe Japan; or, look at South Korea, and see what they've done
- with a little U.S. help, of course - in a tough situation.

John Savard