Letters: Let's take a leap of faith and push toward the moon, Mars and beyond
On July 20, 1969, the world witnessed history in the making. For the first time in history, we stepped on the moon. Most Americans remember hearing the iconic Neil Armstrong quote, “That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” When you think about it, that one quote represents everything about the American Dream.
Sadly, many have almost forgotten what the American Dream is about. While each individual has their own specific dreams and goals, one thing is certain: The American Dream is about taking leaps of faith that are best for our nation. There is no better time than right now for the United States to refocus her priorities and give renewed intensity to space exploration to build the greatest economy ever seen in the history of America.
The moon already has valuable resources like water, various highly rare metals like samarium, lanthanum and even Helium-3, which could be used as a future energy source. Further, the land on the moon, Mars and beyond may help us in ways we can’t yet imagine. Pushing toward space, the moon, Mars and beyond is not only good for humankind — but also the next frontier to ensure the next century is the American Century.
The shift and emphasis on space exploration will revive America to reach heights of prosperity never seen before. Millions of high-paying STEM jobs will be created for Americans along the way, but it won’t be easy. Taking a big leap is never easy. But the easy route has never been the American route.
Stuart Lundberg
Buchanan
Speed bumps
Suddenly our northwest neighborhood is full of speed bumps every two blocks. It may be a wonderful idea, but I can't help wondering how many of our tax dollars are going into this project, how emergency responders feel about the slowdowns and whether neighborhood associations were consulted!
Jill A. Boughton
South Bend
Divided and divisive
Our political system is damaged and at an all-time low. Congress is divided and divisive; two ideologies, progressive and regressive. One has a progressive platform of infrastructure, assistance to the poor, global warming, etc. The other platform is vote no. Public lack of respect for others is a terrible example.
Regressives ignore the constitution preamble: “… to insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare and secure the Blessings of Liberty…” Their policies demonstrate hypocrisy. They speak of liberty but remove liberty for pregnant women to obtain care for life-threatening issues. Transgender children are refused medical care. School books are banned by politicians with little expertise as to age-appropriateness. Some issues are ridiculous; teaching critical race theory to K-8 is the analogy of teaching Quantum Mechanics to freshman.
Those espousing “right-to-life” refuse to limit guns and weapons of war that result in daily killing. The NRA makes a larger political impact than the majority of people. Raising the debt ceiling was another example. Debt was increased by 40%, partially by tax breaks for the wealthy, in the last administration when the progressive party voted three times to increase that ceiling. Regressives wanted to cut spending affecting the middle and poor class. They refuse to raise taxes on the wealthy who pay lower tax rates than our middle class. What do we want for our country?
Tom Nowak
South Bend
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Letter writers on space exploration, speed bumps, Congress dysfunction
