NASA's Shuttle Carrier Aircraft with the space shuttle Discovery mated on top rolls into position for demating at Washington Dulles International Airport, Wednesday, April 18, 2012, in Sterling, VA.
Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
If you are around the National Mall this weekend, I encourage you to check out Earth Day's 42nd anniversary.
If you have been reading the Washington Post this week, you have no doubt seen pictures and photographs of the space shuttle Discovery taking its last trip. Instead of ferrying astronauts and equipment into space, it will become a history piece at the National Air and Space Museum.
I was hit hard by Charles Krauthammer's Discovery's interment symbolizes America's self-driven decline. With sharp imagery, he compares Discovery's display in the museum to the display of Vladimir Lenin's embalmed body in Red Square. History.
To be certain, there is hand wringing with every retirement. But as Krauthammer writes, there is nothing scheduled to replace it. In his words, "... we stop the production of the most complex machine ever made by man - and cancel the successor meant to return us to orbit."
The budget cutters insist we must cut all investment and only spend what the nation collects. Probably nothing wrong with that, except they also insist on reducing taxes. In additional imagery, Krauthammer recalls the painting of "The Fighting Temeraire tugged to her last Berth to be broken up, 1838." Was that the inflection point of the British empire?
Mmm. If you cannot tell, I encourage national investment, even if it means higher taxes and I won't be able to afford a new iPad this year.
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