Some of the "races" in aviation America has won:

1. 1903 and Orville and Wilbur Wright fly 852 feet, inaugurating America's dominance in aviation.
2. Eugene Ely is the first person, in 1910, to take off from a ship.
3. In 1919, US Navy aviators fly from Newfoundland to London, which is the first airplane-crossing of the North Atlantic.
4. Charles Lindbergh flies solo across the Atlantic in 1927.
5. In 1933, Boeing introduces the 247, the world's first modern commercial airliner.
6. Also, in 1933, Pan American initiates the first transpacific mail service.
7. Alan Shepard is the first American in space.
8. Paul MacCready, in 1977, becomes the first person to fly 1.15 miles in controlled, human-powered flight.
9. 1969, Neil Armstrong is the first human to set foot on the moon.
10. On October 14, 1947, Chuck Yeager is the first person to break the sound barrier, in the Bell X-1 rocket plane.

These Americans, plus Amelia Earhart and others not listed above, being propelled by a strange and wonderful national characteristic, took on the job of turning a quirk of an event in 1903, into dominance in the air for our country, which has continued almost unbroken until the present.

On April 15th, 2010, President Obama shattered that century-old tradition of being first, pulling America out of the race to get back to the moon, a race in which we were ahead. The existence of a thing called National Pride, as a result of amazing accomplishments, was not considered. The sound of champagne corks popping could be heard in Moscow, Beijing, and Mumbai, India, as the highway to the moon became a race again, with America sitting on the shoulder of the road with a self-imposed dead engine. The reason given was that it would have cost too much to continue the NASA Constellation program, which is developing our low Earth orbit vehicle, the one that would have gotten us back to the Moon before anyone else. $10 billion has been spent on Constellation. A unique organizational structure of thousands of people has been put in place to insure that we had a seamless transition from when the Shuttle program is laid to rest, at the end of this year, and Constellation was to assume the role that the Shuttle has played these many years, which is taking Americans into space. This will all dissolve on January 1, 2011, and we will have to ask permission of the Russians to please take our people into space on their vehicles.

It was revealed on April 13, 2010, that Neil Armstrong had sent a letter to President Obama, which was also signed by two other Apollo commanders, Eugene Cernan and Jim Lovell, urging him to continue the Constellation program. These three concerned Americans are uniquely qualified to make that request, which was turned down, with that decision absurdly being predicated on how much money would be saved. Writing off the $10 billion already spent was not mentioned. The loss of thousands of jobs was glibly circumvented with promises of even more jobs in the future, but that future may never come.

There is a practical and national security aspect to this that has not been talked about, and that is that the other countries are making their grand push to get to the Moon, partly because there are millions of tons of a particular rock on the Moon that contain a unique gas, Helium 3. These rocks are very scarce on Earth. Helium 3 is a super gas which produces huge quantities of heat from small quantities of gas, and able to generate major amounts of electricity cheaply. It may well be the fuel of the future. The Russians, Chinese, and Indians know this. It is presumed that our president also knows this, which makes his decision even more puzzling. What he has done is condemned America to play a role with whichever of those countries gets there first, exactly like the role America now plays with OPEC, which is that of a beggar pleading for a slice of bread, or an invader demanding it. The situation in the future will be the same with only the name of OPEC and the fuel being different.

Let's look at America at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, in order to get another perspective on what has just occurred, so quietly, and so under the radar.

"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free." Every school kid in America learns that this is part of an inscription written by Emma Lazarus that is written on a tablet that is embedded in the base of the Statue of Liberty.

A good case is made that around the turn of the 19th century, when Europe was being the same old Europe, and war and pestilence, famine and persecution roamed across borders, an invitation like the one that Emma Lazarus extended to the world on behalf of America was received as a Get Out of Jail card, and was cashed in by literally millions of poor, tired, and huddled masses, even beyond Emma's expectations, and America's, for that matter.

With hard work, perseverance, and intelligence, they helped to build the country in directions never dreamed of before, and earned the right to be called Americans, and became part of our revolution. Simply, they became Americans, and with that, came the pride and knowledge that Americans can do anything they set their minds to, and so they could, too.

John F. Kennedy said, "We choose to go to the Moon not because it is easy, but because it is hard." And when Armstrong, the purest American of them all, stepped onto the Moon, there was great pride in our country, but no surprise. In Africa, Australia, China, Sweden, there was no surprise. Armstrong WAS America, and America could do miracles.

We do not choose our leader to challenge and inspire us to be second best. That is what our president just did. He put an end to the work of all those Americans that got us here, from Orville and Wilbur Wright through Lindbergh and Yeager and Armstrong. They are all of one piece of cloth stretching back a hundred years, each building on the work of the others. And, what is unforgivable, by doing so, he carelessly tossed aside this one particular opportunity for Americans to continue to take pride in our country, and themselves as part of the country. This is the sin for which there is no forgiveness. The opportunity for America to continue to be great in space is gone.

Allan Sanford writes for www.JumpIntoPoliticalWaters.com/ a political commentary web site.

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