Delight Springs

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Moonshots

The 44th American president's final state of the union address, already? The future once again is now, time keeps on slipping into it, there's no denying it.

And that's what he talked about, coming full circle: a hopeful and changing future we can believe in, including a cancer moonshot, and in the meantime a recognition that things aren't half as bad as the deniers and "cynics" say.
Sixty years ago, when the Russians beat us into space, we didn’t deny Sputnik was up there.
(LAUGHTER)
We didn’t argue about the science, or shrink our research and development budget. We built a space program almost overnight, and twelve years later, we were walking on the moon. (APPLAUSE)
Now, that spirit of discovery is in our DNA. America is Thomas Edison and the Wright Brothers and George Washington Carver. America is Grace Hopper and Katherine Johnson and Sally Ride. America is every immigrant and entrepreneur from Boston to Austin to Silicon Valley racing to shape a better future.
He's right. We need lots of moonshots, of all kinds, to own the future and invigorate the present. We need to leave the despairing/disparaging pessimists in the past, where they can be safely visited and studied and learned from. Sour Schopenhauers have their instructive uses, and so even have terrible Trumps and brutal Cruzes.

6 am/7, 20/44

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