"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
Few people actually show the text. When England's government became oppressive and unfair to the colonies, it was necessary to raise an army of Militia soldiers to defend and fight for freedom. The authors of our Constitution knew, first hand what it was like to stand up to a bad government that was in power. In their wisdom, they kept this check in the foundation of the new government they were forming. This amendment was meant to keep a balance between the population and any government (like England) that could become corrupted.
Consider for a moment, Nazi Germany. Their government was a democracy similar to England. Of the 12,000,000 exterminated, if only 1% of them had firearms, there would be an armed force of 120,000. Think about what a difference it might have made.
It wasn't until after the war that Nokmim (Hebrew: הנוקמים), also referred to as The Avengers or the Jewish Avengers, a Jewish partisan militia was formed. Forming a "militia." Sound familiar? Pity it was AFTER the war.
In the 1970s we had landed on the moon and space seemed to be our Oyster. There was no reason to doubt that we would have lunar colonies by the end of the 20th century. The Space Shuttle, although only an orbiter, seemed like the first step in building true re-usable spacecraft. The planets like Mars and Venus seemed to be so close we could touch them next.
Even though we were in the middle of the cold war and competition with the Soviet Union was tense this (along with the release of Star Wars in 1977) actually fueled much of the advancement. In a race that began with Sputnik in the 1950s, each side was trying to "conquer space" first.
In 1989 the wall in Berlin fell and with it came the fall of the Soviet Union and the Cold War. With this epic event, which is regarded as one of the greatest moves toward peace on the planet, came the decline of our drive to push further into space.
I realize I am basing the entire civilization's ascension or decline on this one metric of space travel, but there are several points to this that I think make it a good indicator.
The Space Race itself was the catalyst for developing a lot of the technologies we use today.
It was one of the few items in our history as a species, that united us.
Space technology may become necessary one day as an escape for the human race
Space technology may become necessary one day to deflect a NEO (Near Earth Object) or Asteroid
When you stop looking up and exploring, you drive inward.
NASA provides the most compelling evidence in the arguments for climate change
This decade marks the retirement of our aging Shuttle fleet. While NASA insists that they are moving forward with their new non-reusable rockets, it's clear that this really feels like a step backwards. Where once, we looked to the Soviet Union with suspicion (and some admiration) we now see their once bold Orbiter fleet now sits and rots.
As some in power ignore the clear evidence of climate change, we may find ourselves rushing headlong into a world like the one predicted in interstellar. Please take a look at the clip below. If you haven't seen the movie, please watch this:.
While one might look up at the International Space Station and say that we ARE in space, consider the scale. If we used the scale of a regular classroom globe the ISS would reside at a point about 3/4 of and inch (1.5 cm) from the surface. Using the same scale the moon would be 14 feet away. By those terms, humans haven't left the planet in over 40 years.
