There’s an infomercial on TV about “miracle cures”; you may have seen it. It’s the one where they rant about how the FDA and big pharmaceuticals are in cahoots and everything we’re eating is killing us, or at least making us sick, unless we buy their book.

I was just about to continue my channel surfing when they mentioned acid indigestion; I sometimes get indigestion so I (temporarily) took my thumb off the channel button.

They said we treat the symptoms and ignore the cause of indigestion. Did you know, they continued, that we get indigestion when we have too little acid in our stomach, not too much? But that we’ve been told for years the way to treat it is to take pills that further suppress the acid. That “cures” the symptom.

According to them, if we really want to “cure” the disease, we should actually add acid to our system by taking a teaspoon of vinegar.

The vinegar idea wasn’t what struck me, but the notion that we treat symptoms and not diseases. That got me thinking less about my digestive system and more about my country.

Bear with me while I digress a bit ...

JFK gave a famous speech in 1962 at Rice University. In it he said, “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.”

That speech was both audacious and inspiring.

Can you imagine a politician today saying that? Not the moon part, but the hard part, the decade part?

Like a child craves parental limits, our nation craves inspired leadership and is ready to bear the burden of that inspired foresight.

Also remember that when JFK made that speech our country was at the dawn of the jet age, let alone the space age. The 707 was the new jetliner, there were no personal computers, Internet, space shuttle, cell phones, etc.

While criticism was muted because of the incessant “beep, beep, beep” of Sputnik orbiting overhead with its implied communist threat, JFK’s proposal was far from a slam dunk.

You didn’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that we had had spectacular failures on the launch pad; all you needed was a TV.

Are we now too far gone to be asked to really sacrifice and then actually have to follow through?

Just as remarkable, and foreign to us today, was a proposal that could not possibly see fruition until well past the end of his administration. Can you imagine a politician doing that today? Risking that someone else might get the credit? Even a teeny weenie little bit of the credit?

We did succeed in that decade to do what JFK proposed, and more. The entire country committed to the work, and benefited greatly from his vision and leadership and the collective sacrifice. Successive administrations followed through. Success and credit were widespread and lifted us all, not just a single politician or party.

We were well aware of the failures, and there were many. Somehow we were able to accept failure in an effort like that. Could we take the death of Gus Grissom without pulling the plug? How would an Apollo 13 be received today? Is it the media who have changed, or have we?

Business benefited from the flow of federal dollars into the research, testing and manufacturing of the myriad things that made the space program tick. Universities benefited from the influx of bright, highly motivated minds.

Big government management of the space program worked. I think perhaps that the ancillary benefits of the program arguably outweigh the accomplishment of actually having Neil Armstrong take his historic step.

The advances in materials, processes, computational hardware and software and the great base of technical knowledge and sheer brain power that was constructed then is what propelled us well into the 1990s tech boom.

That accomplishment was born at Rice University in 1962 in a speech given by a real leader with long-range, thoughtful vision. Is there a leader like that in this country today? Anyone, anyone? Bueller?

Now flash forward to September 2001. We are all painfully aware of what happened then, but consider for a moment a speech that President Bush never gave, a speech he never dreamed of giving. A speech about treating the disease, not the symptom, about long-term cost and sacrifices, not about going shopping.

One much like JFK’s, only this time he proposes that the United States will invent, produce and distribute the next energy source.

It might be hydrogen fuel cells, wind turbines, solar, fusion, or some combination of those things and others yet to be invented.

He says that in 10 years time we will not consume oil. Any oil from anywhere! That we will once and for all get off the oil nipple on which we are addicted.

Not because it will be easy. But because it will be hard. It won’t be cheap, it will be expensive. Because the flow of money into the despotic and corrupt regimes that supply the industrialized world its oil is in fact funding our destruction. That our national security is directly linked and inversely proportionate to our dependence on oil. Without oil money those regimes and the terrorists they support will collapse upon themselves.

Iraq will become a destination for adventure tourists and not a magnet for jihadists. Democracy there will come with $5 a barrel oil. Then those people will have to take control of their governments.

Bloody revolution and chaos? Most likely. The use of our military forces to keep chaos from spilling over, very likely. But in the end we’ll have a more stable and democratic region than what we have now or will have for the foreseeable future.

He could have said it will take a decade or more, and we all would have gladly joined him. The opportunity was handed to him on a silver platter, understanding the linkage between oil and national security already exists in our national intuition. It would have been a slam dunk.

We’d also avoid the coming conflict with China and India over oil; we could partner with them in the development of this new energy source and further diminish the chance of conflict over access to energy while lifting all our citizens further up the ladder of civilization and progress.

We’d begin to clean up the environment and by building the science and brain power that got us to the moon and back we will power ourselves deep into the 21st, dare I say, the 22nd century.

He would call an entire generation of kids to study science and to see themselves as a part of something bigger than their next purchase.

Most importantly, we’d regain the high moral ground with an inspired and insightful plan not just for the United States, the next election or a single politician; but the whole world, for humankind. He could have made that speech ...

That’s the kind of American inspiration I’ve always believed existed. What miracles can we invent with modern day focus and enlightened, dedicated leadership? What would the equivalent amount of money already spent on the war in Iraq have yielded us?

Other countries would beg to participate, share the cost and enjoy the rewards. New alliances would form, the ties we have with our friends would strengthen. We would gain leverage over our enemies.

Who could have predicted the Internet in 1962? Who can predict what will come from such a effort now? We have the ability – we certainly have the need – we certainly need the chance – we only lack the leadership. Is there a leader in the house?

If we can see past the nay-sayers, moneyed interests and small-minded myopic politicians to a future where the United States is once again a true world leader not just in military might, but in ideas, then this is possible.

If we can see past Red and Blue states, Democrat vs. Republican, and see the true American ideal that exists here, then this is possible.

If we are ready to work, and make our kids work, then this is possible. If we can defer gratification and persevere, then this is possible. If we want national security, a healthy environment and the broad sunlit uplands of Churchill that our progeny deserve, then this is possible. If we simply demand it of our government, then this is possible.

It is up to each of us to contact our elected representatives and tell them we want this version of the future. Not the current version of oil-fed terrorism, the politics of hate, fear and division, special interest money, recurring wars, support for tyrants and force-fed democracy. Not pollution, unstable energy prices or insecurity.

If you’re reading this you’re smart enough to call or e-mail your representatives. 2008 will be here soon, now is the time to act.

Oh, and by the way, the vinegar works like a charm; treating the disease does work.

Thomas Finnegan
Fayetteville, Ga.

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