Green New Deal vs. Moon Shot      

   That night, July 20, 1969, I remember television bringing us Neil Armstrong's "...one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." 

   President Kennedy's 1962 challenge to do it "in this decade ... because it is hard..." was accomplished. They landed, walked, and returned home safely.

   During those seven years, we Americans went about our business. Relatively few engineers, contractors, astronomers and astronauts did the hard work. 

   Leonard Pitts, Miami Herald columnist, asks where is that great American vision, our can-do spirit, when it comes to the Green New Deal? 

   Why can't we supply all our power with clean, renewable energy, and retrofit every home and building for max energy efficiency? Why not provide universal access to higher education and health care, end oppression and guarantee a job with paid vacation and a livable wage to every American?

   Pitt's is quite worried. He writes about "the frightening state of our affairs and the planet's imminent meltdown." He notes "the urgency of the moment, the fracturing of our social covenant, the peril of the planet." 

   Do you see the difference? Our "great" accomplishments (WWII excepted) were singular projects involving selected business and/or government agencies. Pitts envisions all 330 million of us caught up in a hurricane of change, spending wealth without concern for how wealth is created.

   We ask, what about these great American ideals: initiative, work ethic and self reliance? If big government has to save the planet, goodbye personal liberties. Oh, well.

       Jimmy