"Yes We Can"

Forty years ago today (just about now in fact-11 A.M.) I was standing in the cafeteria of a small company in Monroe along with about 150 other people. We were watching the blast-off of the Saturn rocket that would carry three men to the moon. We were very proud because the company we worked for made an electronic component that was in the rocket. We weren't the only ones who were proud. The whole nation looked on with great pride that day. That mission to the moon was far more than just sending a little metal tube with 3 men packed into it 250,000 miles away to land on a chunk of rock that in the overall scheme of things was practically attached to us. It was the culmination of a national effort. It meant when we as a nation say we can do something, we can. It capped the end of a very turbulent period in American history. The nation needed an achievement like this. In a way I believe President Obama is trying to do what John F. Kennedy did almost 50 years ago when he made it a goal for the United States to put a man on the moon within 10 years. He was telling the nation 'yes we can'. At that particular point in time in American history, we needed to hear that. And it's no less true now.