Last week we saw a fascinating statement about NASA’s role in the world. According to NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, President Obama has assigned him the task of improving US relations with the Muslim world. Commentators were shocked.
Relax folks. This may not be as ludicrous as it sounds on the surface. In fact it may be a pretty good idea.
It may be a pretty good idea to make the Muslim world aware that the religion of Islam can include great advancements in science. Islam is not a religion that is supposed to be stuck in the Stone Age, as many of its most ardent followers seem to think.
Can Bolden reach out to the Muslim world without slowing our progress in space? That is possible and though I expect this idea to drown in the general incompetence this Administration has exhibited to date; it will be interesting to see. I hope it works. Perhaps those immortal words, “We Came in Peace,” can expand to, “We Came in Peace, in Pursuit of Peace.”
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Note: I am sickened by the statement of Leslie Marshall regarding Jewish countries in this video. Is this the level of hate based debate that many of Obama’s supporters have sunk to? I won’t hold my breath waiting for her apology.
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One of the first articles I saw on this quoted the former director of NASA saying that the first job of NASA should be to succeed, and in the notoriety of success would come and recognition and acceptance of those who are inclined to recognize and accept such.
I see your point, and I think that NASA can accomplish this task only if it is secondary to it’s true first goal. To put Muslim outreach as the first priority, as some of Bolden’s quotes suggest he was instructed to do, is to make it a distraction at a time in NASA’s life where it does not need distractions.
@Mathew, has the human brain begun to shrink since the election of president Obama? With the establishment of rush limbo/ Beck/ hannity/ sarah Palin / fox news/ tea baggers are we witnessing what scientists have called The Big Crunk??
Is it that hard for some brain to comprehend that Holden’s comments where solely meant (albeit badly) to express the same thing RONALD REGAN said in his speeches? Could it be that after years of admonishing everything and everyone Muslim because of the actions of violent extremists who even kill many other Muslims, that maybe science, math and matters of space can be universal things with potentials of bringing nations together?? What’s so wrong with that? Why have we become so insecure in America? Why do we so easily succumb to propagated fear by the media and the lowest denominators in our society? Just because all kkk members were white doesn’t mean all white people are members of the kkk.
Shame on us! Jon Stewart did a great piece on this, do check it out.
Wow…even mild criticism and agreement gets rebuked.
As an entity funded by taxpayer dollars, the last 2 NASA items I read were them testing the aerodynamics of the balls used in the World Cup, and the NHTSA bringing them into the Toyota investigation. Accomplishing outreach to “the Muslim world” (I’ll need a definition of that please…does it include countries like Indonesia and Pakistan, or is it limited to Arab Muslim countries) should be an organic process….using the best people available, etc. It really shouldn’t be a stated goal and really shouldn’t have to deal with past accomplishments.
@Stardust, what are your thoughts on the answers Robert Gibbs gave to questions regarding this today?
@Brett, that’s exactly what I’m saying. Mediocrity attracts no one, and considering the current administration’s attitude that there is nothing exceptional about the American experiment, it seems mediocrity it what we have and so the attraction must come from elsewhere, like advertising, or bribery, or trying too hard.
As Reagan is the example du jour, it’s the City on a Hill metaphor that must be applied. The act and the fact and the result of becoming and being a City on a Hill draws people to itself. Those who wish to join in the greatness and beauty of the city come to it and build it up higher and brighter. And those who are jealous or otherwise cannot abide the success of that city seek to tear it down or destroy it. Some by ideology, some by suicide bombings.