PrintJuly 26, 2009
Forty Years After Landing on the Moon
There was predictable hoopla recently about the fortieth anniversary of man landing on the moon. Ever since July 20, 1969, politicians have had a mantra related to this historic event: "If we could put a man on the moon then we can..." But the last four decades have proven, as if we needed more proof in history, that magnificent technological achievements are no guarantee of anything much beyond the deed itself. I rejoice as much as any American in Neil Armstrong's famous first step on our planet's great satellite, but I also know that there is much danger in gigantic communal triumphs. Progress, of every sort, in life is seldom made by huge numbers of government workers and public largess being committed to a grand, conspicuous goal. The problem is that what is big and what is visible too often becomes our reality.This does not mean that historic benchmarks like Mount Rushmore, the Wright Brothers flight, the Empire State Building, the Golden...(Read Full Article)
