On March 16th, my club, The Explorer’s Club of New York, held its annual Gala dinner as we celebrated 8 of the remaining Apollo astronauts who attended our event to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first Moon Landing.

Since this is The Explorer’s Club, before the evening really got started, we were treated to the usual gourmet selection of “invertebrate” hors d’oeuvres like these lollipops of scorpions and tarantulas.

Once we got the “bugs” out of our system, we kicked off the evening festivities as we watched the famous clip of President John Kennedy saying,

“First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space…”

As each astronaut on stage related a never before told personal story of space travel, it was impossible not to feel nostalgic for a time when national politicians made bold statements and commitments to the future.  Rather than an intrepid plan to shape the next decade for a common, national goal of scientific advancement, our politicians of today bring us government shutdowns.  Where have the visionary politicians gone?
We elect local politicians to keep government running, as if they were the CEO of the town.  Any mayor that allowed garbage to pile up or the police to be on strike or the sewer system to clog up for 35 days would not survive long in politics.  Yet, national leaders are lauded for bringing the federal government to its knees for 35 days.

  • Rather than expecting these politicians to act as the CEO, we seem to pick federal leaders to reflect our collective national emotion.
  • Or is it the other way around?
  • Do national leaders set the tone for the mood of the country?
  • Do visionary leaders bring the country along for the ride or do we get the politicians we deserve?
  • Will the next president be that visionary leader, taking the country through a decade of advances where cancer becomes extinct or climate change is tamed?

The answer to these questions is why I believe so many of us are drawn to the Houston Foresight Program.  Politicians either lead change or are swept up by it but as futurists, we hope to anticipate change, of any variety, sooner than most.  Personally, nostalgically, after being enthralled by the stories of those 8 heroes of exploration, the change I would love to anticipate would be again to hear the soaring rhetoric that propelled the US into a decade of scientific wonder and discovery. — Karen Rosenthal