Land of the free, home of the brave
They once beat a man because he was a slave
The United States of America
They send space shuttles to the moon
Teachers won’t be able to teach all our children
This won’t happen later—but soon
The United States of America
They send space shuttles to the moon
Older citizens are afraid to come out long past noon
They may lose part of their pension
This won’t happen later—but soon
The United States of America
They send space shuttles to the moon
We hear our country is in economic trouble
Yet, the shuttle takes off in a happy little bubble
The United States of America
They send space shuttles to the moon
Our people will be crying
This won’t happen later—but soon
The United States of America
Land of Liberty
The government won’t let us be free……
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While going through some old writings of mine I rediscovered this poem. I’ll never forget the day I wrote it. I was living off-campus with a relative.
Intensely, I lay stretched across my bed surrounded by textbooks and a half-written term paper, when suddenly, the background TV noise became an intrusion of loud newscasters bursting into the mindless entertainment buzzing about the lift-off of yet another space shuttle. It angered me.
Why, you may ask was I angry—simple. Before the mindless entertainment, the daily news was on enlightening us of all the problems we were facing as a nation: how we were in economic trouble, the crimes of our youth, the state of senior citizens, our troubled school systems, etc, etc. So yes, hearing their excitement laced with pious political importance report the take-off of a space shuttle angered me. My collegiate revolutionary intellect surmised it as sending millions of dollars literally into space and people here on earth in the great country of the USA were going to lose their pension.
In that moment “economic trouble” as reported by the newscasters, that day back in the early 80’s, sent my pen in a different direction than the topic of my term paper. Yes, that’s when it was—the early 80’s (research pinpoints it as April 12,1981)—and here we are in 2010…
What has changed in the US of A since that day—what has evolved—what stayed the same—and the big question of all—what came true from that day to now concerning the economy…
Food for thought:
"Space is much more expensive to do and much more technically difficult
than any other industry," he said. "Nobody's been able to figure out what can
you do in space that will allow you to make a lot of money. In the aircraft and
railroad business, it became obvious that transporting cargo made you money, but
in the case of space it is just not that easy."
Quote by analyst John Pike taken from this article: http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jul/23/business/fi-spacebiz23
In all the years listed here: http://www.infoplease.com/spot/spaceshuttletimeline.html how much money could American seniors enjoy if we had an alternate money maker.
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