4/18/12 WASHINGTON, DC, WHERE DREAMS GO TO DIE

A DARK, DAMP, QUIET MORNING

Wednesday,  7:45 AM, 42 degrees F, wind N, calm.  The sky is overcast and the barometer predicts rain.  It is a dark,  damp,  quiet morning, the last of the snow surviving under bushes and on the north sides of buildings.  Even so, it feels a little more like spring again. 
   I say a large deer cross the road on Manypenny and Eleventh Street this morning.  I lake to see deer but ot in town where they destroy our gardens.
    Today will be spent mostly traveling back and forth to Duluth for a follow-up doctor’s appointment. Hopefully there will be some interesting things to observe and report on along the way.
    What a sad sight to see the space shuttle Discovery make its last trip, and that to Washington, DC, where it seems dreams go to die.  We are an immature, thoughtless nation, whose lack of historical perspective and self-control is evident in our willingly and seemingly without regret giving up our dominance in space…and with it that in science and engineering…to the likes of the Chinese and the Russians.  We claim we can no longer afford to be the leader in space science and exploration, while our government wastes millions upon millions on outrageous coffee breaks, vacation trips and call girl parties. 
    So the shuttle goes to the Smithsonian, where the space program will be symbolically entombed, as a museum artifact.  Too bad a few of the politicians who watched Discovery’s Washington flyover yesterday from the Capitol steps can’t be stuffed and put on display along with it.