Thursday December 17th

Today in 1903 Orville & Wilber Wright made the first heavier than air flight at Kitty Hawk North Carolina. Now even though the flight took place in NC, it is Dayton Ohio that calls itself the birthplace of aviation and lay claim to the Wright Brothers. I even attended college at Wright State University. 

Just think of the 1900 to 1999, what a century our parents lived and my generation got to see the last 30 + years of. I do not think that there has been a century that ever saw such leaps and advances.

If Charles Duell had had his way the 20th century could have been a bust. He was the Commissioner of the U.S. Patent Office and in 1899 he declared "Everything that can be invented has been invented" and he actually considered closing the Patent Office for good.

I think that if we can go to the moon, defy gravity, explore the depths of the ocean and dream of creations that have gotten us to the heights that we have attained, I truly feel that we should be able to find the answers that we are struggling to find now. All we have to do is decide to do it together.
 
An excerpt from Kennedy's Speech in 1963 about going to the moon sums it up pretty well.

"We choose to go to the moon. 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."