Opinion

NASA now means ‘No Air or Space Anymore’

Myra Adams Contributor
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Where’s the outrage over this headline?

NASA Chief: Next Frontier Better Relations With Muslim World

When I first saw this story I thought it was political satire.

When I realized it wasn’t, I started writing this column as therapy to help me through the realization of yet another signal that our nation is finished as a great power.

So let’s examine the facts surrounding this important news story.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in an interview with Al Jazeera…Wait, stop right here!  Why is the NASA chief giving an interview to Al-Jazeera?

I thought NASA stood for National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or at least it used to. Now one could surmise it stands for No Air or Space Anymore, since the Shuttle program is ending and the Constellation program which was to return astronauts to the moon and build new rockets and spaceships was canceled under Bolden’s watch. Apparently Bolden has plenty of time to give interviews to Al-Jazeera while he oversees the dismantling of our space program at the behest of his boss, President Obama.

It turns out that Bolden interviewed with Al-Jazeera while he was in the Middle East speaking at the American University of Cairo in late June marking the one year anniversary of President Obama’s 2009 speech to Muslim nations in Cairo.

Is this something new from the Obama administration, marking the one year anniversary of Obama’s global speeches? Does this mean in October that Obama will send his Secretary of Agriculture to mark the one year anniversary of his failed Olympic bid speech in Stockholm?

The news story only gets better because during the Al-Jazeera interview Bolden recounted his conversation with President Obama who outlined Bolden’s personal NASA mission before he headed up the space agency. “He charged me with three things,” recounts Bolden.

First, “to help re-inspire children to want to get into science and math.” (So why wasn’t this guy named Secretary of Education rather than NASA chief?)

Second, was to “expand our international relationships.” (So why wasn’t he named Secretary of State?)

Third, “find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science…and math and engineering.”

(So, why isn’t Bolden heading up the Peace Corps if he’s in the “help them feel good” business?)

Fascinated by Obama’s third mission for NASA, I googled Muslim contributions to math and science and discovered, according to a Muslim periodical, “When we talk about Muslim contributions to mathematics we are usually referring to the years between 622 and 1600.”

I delved further into the science contributions and found this:

Starting around 750 AD science flourished under the Abbasid caliphs of Baghdad, gradually spreading its influence as far west as Spain and eastwards into Central Asia, over a period of more than 600 years.

So, now it’s all beginning to make some sense.

Our president sends his NASA chief Bolden to the Middle East to mark a one year anniversary of a forgotten speech and gives an interview to Al-Jazeera, so he can clarify for all the folks back home what President Obama’s priorities are for NASA, which includes making Muslim nations feel good about what happened centuries before we even existed as a nation.

Does anyone else find this strange, troubling or just plain outrageous?

Remember when NASA was about going to the moon, giant steps for mankind, space walks, national pride, John Glenn and all “the right stuff?”  I guess that was the good ole days when children were inspired by what they saw on their television screens and wanted to “get into science and math” so they could grow up and walk on the moon, Mars or a galaxy far, far away.

Now children can be “re-inspired” with science and math as they watch our leaders help Muslim nations feel good about what happened in the 700’s since there won’t be any astronauts around.

Will someone on Capitol Hill please get outraged by these misplaced NASA priorities and do something about it? If not, count this news story as just one more sign that our nation’s best days are in the rear view mirror of our GM (government made) automobiles.

Myra Adams is a media producer, writer and political observer. Her web site TheJesusStore.com contributes all profits to Christian charity.