Volume 2 Issue 1
February 3, 2003
A New Beginning?
Well folks, this is it, the big day! You'll notice I've even started a new volume number to celebrate! That's right, if you're reading this e-mail, that means that the Swamp web site has officially launched. So, visit us today at http://www.fromtheswamp.com and not only get to see today's writings, but also archived Swamp's, as well as other exciting features! We will of course be adding things as time goes by, but the big feature is that you can now subscribe yourself on the web site (and you can view the daily Swamp without even getting the e-mail!) and you'll also get to see some of my favorite links and recommended reading and viewing. Please let me know what you think! Special thanks to the "Swampmaster" for helping to get everything set up. Enjoy!
Unfortunately, I'm actually unable to join all of you for today's big launch, as I will be in meetings all day at work today. So, to ensure that we would have a Swamp today, I put this together Sunday evening with material from the weekend. Fortunately, most papers now post their stories from the next day's paper by 10pm, so I can even include some of Monday's stuff! We'll be back on the normal schedule tomorrow! Oh, and to those of you joining us today for the first time, I want to assure you that the ranting is not always as out there or as long as today's...trust me :)
Space Shuttle Columbia:
Of course, the big story from this weekend was the disaster involving the Space Shuttle Columbia, which disintegrated on re-entry on Saturday morning over Texas. You'll see a few links below, obviously the news coverage is everywhere but there were a few that stood out when I read them. And though I usually keep it short, I hope you'll forgive me if I "sermonize" on this today. While it is a tragedy for all of the usual reasons, the loss of life, the setting back of the space program, the blow to the national psyche, there is a larger issue that I think has not really been explored yet. Perhaps its too soon, perhaps it's not proper to mention while we honor the dead, but unless we confront the issue head on, then they may have died in vain. Many of the "larger" issues being focused on as part of the cause of the accident, such as the lack of funding for NASA causing them to scrimp on safety, are merely symptoms of an even larger problem: We, as Americans, have lost our ability to dream, or have at least regulated it to the back burner.
Now, obviously not every individual has lost their ability to dream, after all, we always see from time to time idealists come on the scene, and even the oldest "child" is amazed when we see men walking on the moon, or pictures from a rover on Mars, or even a small example of kindness or charity. But far too often, we as American's can no longer collectively dream the "big idea", no longer reach for something that is beyond our easy grasp. We have, in effect, lost our vision. Some may think that quite a strong statement, but something has happened to our nation in recent years, something more than just one political or cultural event, something that seems to have changed us to the point where we can no longer feel we can achieve our collective dreams. What has happened with the space program over the last 10 years is just an illustration of this.
NASA's budget has not been increased (other than inflation adjustments) since at least 1990. The budget is now around $14 billion. Keep in mind that the President's tax cut package of 2001, and the proposed package on the Hill today would total in the hundreds of billions of dollars. Yet, even the idea of building a replacement for the Space Shuttle has been deemed too pricey, and too "unachievable", despite the fact that it would bring the best minds of our nation together, the best industries, the best of the dreamers. Of course, there have been management problems in NASA recently, but is building a next generation orbiter, or manning the space station, really any more of a stretch that going from an idea in a speech to a man on the moon in just 8 years? Can we put a price on things like CAT scans, Velcro, microwave ovens, and other parts of our daily lives that the space program developed? Is that money better spent on tax cuts than on investing in our future?
Obviously we can't do everything, and can't fully fund every worthy project out there, from college aid, to medical research, to space exploration. But we can do something. Look again at that NASA budget. It wasn't just under pressure the last year or two, when one could have argued that the recession and war necessitated a step back. No, it declined in real value all through the 1990's, through the largest economic boom in our history. Why? Because as a people we decided during the 1990's to focus more on ourselves. Instead of expanding programs that would help the poorest among us, we gave upper-middle class people tax credits for college and increased their IRA and 401(K) deductions. Instead of invigorating NASA and creating bold new plans, we made them cancel an unmanned probe to Pluto, cut funding for research on a possible Mars landing, and made them privatize most of their flight operations to large corporations, who we then gave tax breaks to so they could further enhance their profits. And even if we had just taken 5 or 10 billion dollars from these "priorities" and given it to NASA, imagine what we could have done. If we can't reach for our dreams when things are going well, how are we to use them to keep our spirits up when things are not going so well, like in our world now?
Perhaps September 11 was after all a key in this, in that it changed the way we think. Perhaps now, it is all about survival, and dreams must be set aside. But I think that it is in reality, an opportunity that we missed, and I fear that hidden in all of the talk about Columbia will be the fact that we may miss another. After 9/11, the world came together in a way we had not seen in sometime. NATO, an alliance mainly of European nations we formed to help protect them, instead announced it would help protect us, sending their troops into Afghanistan alongside ours. Former enemies rallied to our cause. Yet now, that goodwill has vanished in a foreign policy of a nation seemingly hell-bent on war in the Middle East, preparing to fight a nation for trying to develop weapons of mass destruction while allowing one that we know has developed them, and that may be more dangerous, to go along unpunished. What's worse, we justify this on helping to ease the suffering of the Iraqi people, while a few hundred miles away, Israelis and Palestinians both live in great suffering, and we do nothing to help solve the crisis, not to mention the people suffering all over Africa and many other parts of the world, as well as in our own nation. Shortly after 9/11, as Great Britain prepared to join the US in military action, many members of the ruling Labor party questioned why they would join in such an action. When Tony Blair addressed them at a party conference, he noted that Britain was not merely joining in with the US in attacking a nation, but that they were participating in what could be a turning moment for humanity. He said: "The starving, the wretched, the dispossessed, the ignorant, those living in want and squalor from the deserts of Northern Africa to the slums of Gaza, to the mountain ranges of Afghanistan: they too are our cause. This is a moment to seize. The Kaleidoscope has been shaken. The pieces are in flux. Soon they will settle again. Before they do, let us re-order this world around us." That optimism was shared by many. In fact, at the end of 2001 more Americans thought the nation was on the right track than in a long time, a number that has plummeted at the start of 2003. We missed that opportunity to work together, as Americans, and as citizens of the world, to help re-order the pieces of the Kaleidoscope. Columbia now presents us with a new opportunity. To regain our ability to dream, to say that here, in this nation, in this world, we can put our collective resources, intelligence, and support together and make it a better place. To say, yes, we want to all live comfortably, but we can make some common sacrifices to help the nation as a whole.
I'm sure to many out there this will sound like untempered idealism, and it does to me as well, so much so I almost did not post it today. But I think that the fear of dreaming big has kept us back far too long. As Bart Giamatti, the President of Yale and Commissioner of Baseball wrote when anticipating criticism for his decision to ban Pete Rose said: "I will be told that I am an idealist. I hope so. I will continue to locate ideals I hold for myself and for my country in the national game as well as in other of our national institutions." Whether you find it in Giamatti's baseball or another sport, or in the arts, or in relationships with friends and family, or in the simple work that everyone from teachers to doctors to street sweepers do every day, we need to locate our ideals in our collective national conscience, we need to continue to dream, so that dreaming is not something just for little children, but something to try to achieve.
Over 80 years ago, Dr. Robert Goddard, the inventor of rocketry and "father" of all space exploration, was asked when he thought his work would be finished. He responded, "There can be no thought of finishing, for 'aiming at the stars', both literally and figuratively, is a problem to occupy generations, so that no matter how much progress one makes, there is always the thrill of just beginning." To us now, as to those he meant if for long ago, it should mean that in our personal lives, as well as in our national conscience, we need to dream, that just surviving is not enough, that without reaching for the "big idea", we will never know the potential we might have had, even if we fall short. May we seize this as another new beginning, to stretch ourselves to try and realize our dreams and re-order the Kaleidoscope - for ourselves, for our nation and world, and for the 7 dreamers who lost their lives on Saturday, as well as for the dreamers that have yet to come.
Here are a few articles I thought of particular interest:
See? They're already talking about abandoning the Space Station -
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/02/science/02cnd-stati.html
The New York Times has a good story about how until now Bush has ignored the space program. Do you know that his visit Tuesday to the Johnson Space Center in Houston for the memorial service will be his first visit ever to the facility, which he never even visited when he was Governor of Texas? -
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/03/politics/03LETT.html
The Chicago Tribune had a great column by John Kass about why Astronauts hold a special place in our national history, and why they are so important (Free, Registration Required) -
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/printedition/chi-0302020344feb02,1,6724812.column?coll=chi%2Dprintnews%2Dhed
And the best column about the tragedy was by Marc Fisher in Sunday's Washington Post -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13330-2003Feb2.html
Separated at birth? I'm sorry, but I had to note this. Has anyone else noticed that NASA Official Ron Dittemore looks just like Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle? (these aren't the best photos, but I'm rushed for time :)
(Dittemore: http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/photo/homepage/hp2-2-03pp.jpg)
(Daschle: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/030107/16 1/2zpo5.html)
Well, at least they're trying: So the GOP continues to try to broaden its horizons, but they've still got a lot of work to do. But, they do have now the African American Republican Leadership Council. Of course, this would be better if African-Americans were actually members of this group -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58238-2003Jan29.html
Look Who's Running for President: The New York Times Magazine had an excellent essay on Gary Hart. Is he running for President, or just trying to get respectability? After all, this is a man who
predicted the September 11 attacks 2 years before -
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/02/magazine/02HART.html
PowerPoint being the devil - A Follow-up: Not only does PowerPoint hurt the productivity of businesses and schools, it also may be causing problems in the military. Hmm...that may be a new way to get Al-Queda...bombard them with PowerPoint presentations! -
http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,57420,00.html
Phil - More winter to come: And, America's favorite weather forcaster, Punxsutawney Phil, saw his shadow yesterday, meaning we will be having 6 more weeks of winter -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14406-2003Feb2.html
I promise a full swamp tomorrow! Hope you like the new site! Send your questions and comments to !
