I was thinking today about presidents and energy and such. Then that forwarded me to think about JFK's influential "Space Race" speech. It was given in a time where the country didn't really know what was goin on with the whole commie/sputnic situation and they wanted to see something and Kennedy gave everyone a 10 year deadline that was reached seven years later. Kennedy not only threw out this deadline but he also raised the funds for the space initiative as well as raised the morale of the country. What I proposed to myself was to be that we have a Kennedy "space race" esque version but for the present day and present crisis...energy. Right now Iceland is leading in this race, and even though we are allies with this peaceful island (unlike russia in Kennedy's era) we should push ourselves to be at the forefront of this fight. Since gas has been at a low right now at $42 we have been blind to the need to change. Many have overlooked our anticipation for an Electric vehicle or a Hydrogen vehicle, and auto makers are spending more time asking for money rather than doing what they should do, sell their current materials to their rivals and use the money made to come up with a cheap clean efficient way of transportation. I propose that our president be it Bush or Obama propose a deadline for America to be the first country to rid itself of dirty power sources, be the first truly efficient country. Kennedy's Space race created jobs, so can the energy race. Between fabrication, installation and maintenance this will not be in issue. Even though some countries already lead the fight as the russians did in space we will have to double our strive for clean power and not sit around watching the snow fall and the seasons change, we need to act. Even though this is not a question of military power as it was during Kennedy's time we should still go at it with a vengeance. This is not something we should be split between oil man and environmentalist or Republican or Democrat, it is something we must come together in as a country to partake in a race to be the first country to cut its ties with dirty energy.
