The Eagle has Landed
It was at 10:56 PM on this date in 1969 that the human race--represented by Neil Armstrong--first set foot on the moon. It was an amazing achievement, conceived and carried out during a tumultuous time in our nation's history.

Yet as incredible a feat as reaching the moon was, NASA has soared to even greater heights during the intervening decades. For example, mankind has succeeded in growing tomato plants in low Earth orbit, and demonstrating that earthworms can successfully mate in a weightless environment.

Who knows what wonders await us in the next 35 years?

---------------Rob Rogers, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Granted, George W. Bush last January proposed sending humans to explore Mars, but that idea seems to have pretty much died quiet death since then. And that's truly a shame.

Many critics charged that we should take care of our existing problems--such as poverty, homelessness, and starvation--here on Earth before we go reaching for other worlds. Those may be noble words, but they also represent unattainable idealism.

The unfortunate fact is that poverty, homelessness, and starvation have existed from the moment Adam & Eve were forced to leave the Garden of Eden. Every society in recorded history has always had some luckless individuals at the bottom of the economic ladder, and every society in the future will continue to do so. It's a simple fact that in any hierarchal structure, someone's going to be at the bottom of the pile getting shafted.

Actually, I take that back. We can solve the problem of poverty, homelessness, and starvation here on Earth, and going to the red planet is precisely the way to do it!!

Simply put, we build a really big spaceship, stick all the poor homeless people who are starving on it, and ship 'em off to Mars!

Problem solved.