A Bitter Nostalgia

I remember in grade school and middle school when I was growing up they would roll TVs into the classroom and we would all watch in wonder as the Mercury and then the Saturn V launch vehicles would, with a rumble and roar lift our astronauts into space. With this technology we put the first men on the moon, sent probes into deep space and around the planets in this solar system. They also lifted up young hearts and minds to believe that maybe they could someday walk on the surface of a different world and stare back at the star that gave them birth with wonder.

Today, the last space shuttle mission launched. After the shuttle returns it will be mothballed and with that action, the USA will no longer has the capability to put people into space. Now, with the demise of the space shuttle we will become a beggar nation when it comes to space, just like the third world countries we will have to go begging with hat (and money) in hand to the Russians and Chinese to use their rockets, vehicles and launch facilities. John F. Kennedy will be spinning in his grave.

We have record unemployment, the lowest new job creation numbers and the dollar is at one of its lowest points in relation to other currencies that it has ever been. I don’t know what the future holds but I am worried. I worry that my grandchildren will be burdened with an immense load of debt that they can’t possibly repay. I worry that they will have no jobs and become dependent on the government for their sustenance, not because of lack of desire or ability, but because of the incompetence of our leaders. For the first time the future looks worse than the past.

Perhaps my memories just aren’t correct. I recall affordable housing, cars, gas and food. I recall a time when one income would feed a family and mothers weren’t expected to work outside of the home. I recall when a majority of time children were respectful to their elders, God was allowed in courts, in schools in lives. Many intellectuals wanted change, wanted God out of society, because after all, God was an outmoded concept that modern, thinking, scientific man didn’t need. How is a Godless world working out for you folks? Personally I find it a disturbing and quite a bit a scary place and getting worse as we get further from the basic rules, handed down by God that this country was based on.

Disgusting, violent video games that desensitize our youth to violence and death are authorized by the highest court in the land. Movies you are afraid to attend because you never know what they will contain fill the movie theaters. The basic rights that the country was founded on are perverted because our highest courts are filled with people with no common sense, no moral courage and nothing but empty academic theories instead of wisdom.

I am sorry if I am a bit morose today. The 10 year old with dreams of being an astronaut just died in my soul.