Traveling around the world, a total of 120 million miles (4,600 orbits of the earth), the space shuttle Atlantis, the fourth operational space shuttle in the NASA fleet, is about to make its last mission. Today, Atlantis is sitting on the launching pad, ready to explore the stratosphere on a long last trip. From 1958 to 2008, NASA was budgeted a total of $470 billion to investigate outer space. For the professionals and technicians of the space program, space became their big playground. More support would have arisen for NASA from the average “earthworm” (American citizens struggling to survive from the crumbs who have fallen from the table of their own hardwork and the diligence of others) if there had been more developments from this expense. Now, there is more sickness on earth than ever before, more poverty than ever before, more warfare now than ever before. The space program has given good lives...fame, fortune, fantasy, to a very select group.
What else is new? With the advent of the movie house, television, Carl Sagan, science has become theatre. I lost interest in science many years, canceled my membership in the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The scientist became much more interested in the package deal provided by the university, book publisher, grants from the government and elsewhere, than actual research and discovery. The scientific method, scientific thrill, research, discovery and progress, gave way to the good life...tenure, vacations, and perks.
As the young officer learns fast in the military, promotions in all fields of endeavor...campus departments, government commissions, commercial hierarchy, is more attributable to what the chief officers wife thinks of you than your actual ability. Particularly, if the well-heeled, well-connected can bed you down. There was a time when we thought these things only happened in Hollywood, but it happens everywhere. In one Army hospital, the chief of each department readily admitted that he had bedded down the commander's wife... the commander, a festooned perishing drunk. Have you ever consider how many young men Potiphar's wife bedded down before Joseph of the Old Testament? (Genesis 39)
This writer had advanced in many organizations until he got near the top. Towards the top I found that most organizations...it makes no difference whether political, religious, fraternal, or professional...those at the top just use the prestige, power and funds of the organization as their own playground. Again, the “earthworms” at the bottom, just of value in working to supply the funds.
I had become vice president of one professional group. We held all meetings in a governor's suite in a large hotel, the best morsels of food were hauled up elevators and lavishly served to those who had made the professional climb. I once heard a famous pastor talk about having dinner with Oral Roberts (President of Oral Roberts University) and his wife Evelyn in their suite at an expensive hotel. I find those who talk most about servitude, gratitude, are the first to enjoy the fruits of others. The politician, the pastor, the professional (scientist, educator) know before they make the advancement or run for public office, that there are costs involved, if not able or willing to pay the price, don't start the march.
I was always as careful with other's money (membership dues, contributions, taxes) as with my own funds. I paid my own way to everything and it did not bother me to economize by eating frugally in the cheapest places around. As an officer in a fraternal group, expected to attend certain conferences, I insisted on sharing rooms, expenses, why should the bank account of member's dues be used as my cushion of comfort?
I once asked the president of a large professional group, “how do you determine your out-of-pocket expenses on a trip for the organization? I know you have hotel receipts, flight receipts, etc.” I had noticed that he was out buying gifts for his family. He said, “ I count the cash in my wallet before I leave, and what is there before I return, everything else is a business expense.” Obviously, he used his accomplishments as president of the group to his financial advantage. The same man told me to make sure he was given a sterling silver tea service at the conclusion of his term. Still, once in a long time, someone gets caught (Wilbur Mills, John Edwards).
Comedy is tragedy + time. A bend is funny, but a break is tragic. A superior can go to an office party, get to drinking and act like a fool, and this is considered funny, but a person of limited intelligence, limited mental ability, very sober, acting like a fool is tragic.
In this politically correct world, where the state-controlled news media spends their time defending the elitists, especially those who make fools of themselves. The world has become a playground for the greedy, a place of struggle for the needy. Like the scientists, everyone is afraid of the peer-review of those in authority, the scientist ventures no further than the accepted procedure, the pastor, so afraid to offend Satan, the politician wanting everything studied by a specialist for blame control. Human beings still think we thrive best in a sanitized playground, but it is interferences, infections from the toxins of the world that give us immunity. Stay willing to learn, even junk science, even late night radio, comics and cartoons, can give insight. Get ready for an attitude adjustment.
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