Getting Out There

Okay, so you know how I said I was super inspired by The Obama Diaries and Laura Ingraham's thoughts on how we can all make a difference at the dinner table? Still true, but not necessarily my focus for the next 75 days or so. November 2 will be here in no time so I got my little self out of the house today and over to my County Republican Women's Club meeting. It was a "tea", but let's not split hairs.

Congressman Ralph Hall was present and spoke for a while, as did his Congressional Staff Director Leslee Gilbert. Ralph Hall is very funny. My favorite line, "They keep calling us the party of 'No'. That's not all bad. Eight of the Ten Commandments say 'No'." Nice one.

One of the subcommittees Leslee Gilbert staffs is Space and Aeronautics. An informed attendee raised her hand and asked about the following subject while the rest of us whispered, "when did that happen?" and "what the heck?" Some snippets on Obama's mission for NASA:

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a recent interview that his "foremost" mission as the head of America's space exploration agency is to improve relations with the Muslim world.

"When I became the NASA administrator -- or before I became the NASA administrator -- he charged me with three things. One was he wanted me to help re-inspire children to want to get into science and math, he wanted me to expand our international relationships, and third, and perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science ... and math and engineering," Bolden said in the interview.

He said the United States is not going to travel beyond low-Earth orbit on its own and that no country is going to make it to Mars without international help.

That's most of the meat, but you can click here for the full article. Or just search "NASA mission Muslims". It's everywhere and I had NO IDEA.

Crazy me. I just figured that since the United States is still the world leader in science and technology with China (gaining ever so quickly on us), Japan, Germany, Britain, Russia, and France coming behind us we might turn towards those countries first if we actually needed to turn to anyone at all. But where's the fun in that? My favorite part about the three charges President Obama gave to Mr. Bolden: None of them have anything to do with space exploration. We've got some smart cookies running the show in Washington. It's just jobs, oh and our position as world leader in science and technology, that hang in the balance. But hey, as long as the Muslims feel good about their contribution...

On a positive, less ironic note...the meeting today was great and I highly recommend that everyone who possibly can just go to a local GOP meeting. Getting there is half the battle. I was educated, informed, and inspired to do more while I met a lot of like minded fellow citizens. Our County Republican Women's Club is holding a special Saturday event at a high school for any citizen interested in getting involved. There they will explain what you can do, how to get involved, how to become a delegate if you are interested, etc. I expect similar meetings may be available everywhere. I will be dragging as many friends as I can with me. So much hangs on November 2 that everyone who can needs to participate.