NASA Works!

On February 18, 2021, the Perseverance rover successfully landed on Mars after its seven month journey and immediately sent back pictures to Earth. It is an amazing feat that took years of ingenuity and hard work. The rover will explore, collect and experiment to expand human knowledge. Over 350 people worked together to make this possible. This successful government funded project provides an excellent example of what we can do when we work together.

This week also demonstrated the failure of the privatization of the Texan electrical grid that is intentionally not part of the national grid in order to avoid federal regulations. Extreme cold weather conditions caused the grid to fail leaving most residents without heat or water as pipes froze for days, sadly, resulting in several deaths. The owners of the Texas electric company chose to not implement the winterization upgrades suggested after the 2011 sub freezing temperatures. Texas residents received cheap energy and owners got rich. I think if the residents knew the future risks of this cheap energy they may have chosen to pay a little more over the years. Government regulations would have avoided this disaster and is, obviously, necessary to protect ordinary Americans.

Decades of anti-government rhetoric from the right has undermined confidence in and the effectiveness of our government. Our greatness as a nation depends on our ability to work together and good government is the key. Privatization is motivated by profit and not the common good. We need to elect good people and not those seeking personal power and the dismantling of the administrative state. We are only as good as our government which simply is us together.

JFK inspired the Peace Corps and DJT inspired an antigovernment insurrectionist mob to desecrate the hallowed halls of democracy. We are the greatest country in the world, but for how long? The Perseverance provides hope and the Texas disaster causes doubt!