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Charles Jaco has written opinion and commentary pieces for dozens of magazines and newspapers. Each week, read and comment on a fresh on-line version. The discussion page enables you to share your view points world wide. If you would like to make a comment go to the " Join the discussion" link below. If you would like to view past editorials visit the Editorial Archive.
Editorial: 7/23/99 When Jack Schmidt jumped from the lunar lander onto the moon's gray powder and rock, he had no idea he'd be the last person this century to do it. It was December, 1972. Everyone knew Apollo 17 was the last moon mission. But Schmidt told me it never crossed his mind that we wouldn't go back in the next 30 years. Now, the retired geologist told me, he expects the next time a flag's unfurled on the moon, it won't be the Stars and Stripes, but the logo of Microsoft or Boeing or maybe even McDonalds. Alan Bean, commander of Apollo 12 and the fourth man to walk on the moon, agrees. Bean's stunning space paintings have made him to moonscapes what Winslow Homer was to seascapes. It's all private enterprise now, they both said. No one in the government or the public would even consider it otherwise. Why? When a young, vital president pledged America would put a man on the moon by the end of 1969, the country said "Sounds big, but we bet we can." By the time his young, vital son plunged into the Atlantic 38 years later, the public said "Government and public service is for suckers." LBJ lied about Vietnam, Nixon lied about Watergate, Reagan lied about Iran-Contra, Bush lied about taxes, and Clinton lied about everything. The market's booming, and we're busy buying SUV's the size of JFK's PT boat. Private is better, from schools to property. Every candidate since 1972 has told us that government's run by a bunch of evil chumps. So public service---doing something from teaching school to exploring the moon because it's something we all agree needs to be done---is for losers. The bottom line is the bottom line, and we can't agree on anything. Alan bean said it was ironic that what seemed so doable in the turbulent Sixties seems so outlandish in the prosperous Nineties. No one, he said, even considers spending the money to do something as massive as going to the Moon or Mars. But, he adds, it wasn't the money. It was the men and women of NASA, most of them poorly-paid engineering grads in their twenties, that fulfilled Kennedy's 1961 promise. Engineering grads like that now angle for millions in stock options on their latest dot com. Talk to them about the return of people to space and they'll say, "Sure. What's in it for me?" That's the only trouble with private enterprise. It's all about private gain. That's the engine that drives the economy, of course. But it;s a lousy way to go back into space. The U.N. treaty declaring heavenly bodies international territory will be the first target of any corporate space venture. After all, why should I pay to go back to the moon unless I own all the mineral rights? And besides, no one dreams those kinds of dreams anymore. Where's the profit in exploration for exploration's sake? A private-public partnership's probably the best way to do it. Don't spend taxpayers dollars for all of it. And don;t let private companies gobble up all the discoveries foir themselves. A nice balance there. All this may be one small part of the reason the nation mourns JFK Junior. His life was a direct link to the time when it was all possible. His death reminds us we don't think that way anymore. |
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