This United States needs a focus on something that will make our country thrive in the 21st century. We need a mission. We need to be focused on the future. That is what companies do and this nation’s leaders should adopt that philosophy from private enterprise. Defeating Al-Qaeda should not be our national mission. That course would be surrendering to terrorism.
I am prompted to this idea by two occurrences and one interview. First the mass NASA layoffs at Cape Canaveral in Florida that Businessweek recently described as amounting to an astonishing 9,000 people. That layoff will disperse the people who can help this country go to new heights that only the likes of Gene Roddenberry and Ray Bradbury could imagine. Second an article in today’s Los Angeles Times titled “Astronauts send home a whole new worldview” describing “Earthlings are seeing their planet in a whole new light…”
The interview was presented by Diane Sawyer of ABC News on her trip to China this past week. She interviewed Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, China’s largest e-commerce website. Ma said he believes that American ingenuity is a model for the Chinese. “Innovation is a culture. When I see the American culture, the American culture is very innovative,” Ma said. “To have a culture of innovation takes about two or three generations.” Further in the interview Ma said “Always think about the mission, and the mission drives you.”
The rest of the world is advancing while the United States is arguing about budget cuts, high unemployment, airport security, and other less important issues. We need a vision. We cannot afford the loss of two or three generations. Remember it was President John F. Kennedy who enunciated the goal of putting a man on the Moon within ten years. We did it and we opened new technologies that were only dreams back on May 25, 1961.
We can and must do it again!
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