The launch of the Space Shuttle and a nation's destiny
As I watched Space Shuttle Atlantis take off yesterday and remembered watching, as a teenager in California, Space Shuttle Columbia in April 1981 take the shuttle program into space and recall all its ups and downs (with the disasters in 1986 and 2003), I also understand the sense of destiny that makes a nation proud (in this case the US and its space quest).... The emotions are always the same - goose bumps, tears that cannot be held back, and a sense of pride of having had the privilege to live and study in the US for a significant part of my life. .... And then I always reflect on my country...What about my country, what is its sense of destiny?...It seems to have none, perpetually lost is its pettiness, unable to overcome the burden of its glorious past and the gifts its peoples gave to the world starting with the greatest of all - democracy. The shuttle program is coming to an end with the Atlantis mission but I do not have any doubts that the United States will be l