The Wuss Factor

Already, we have the media and a few others questioning whether the space program is worth the risk to human life. As an academic exercise such questions can be asked but if anyone is actually serious in questioning whether manned space exploration is worth the risks I question their vision if not their sanity. Where would we be if the early ocean explorers had whimped out the first couple of times men were lost at sea?

No one will argue against taking reasonable precautions but I wonder if we have become a nation of short-sighted first-class wusses. From our overreaction to terrorism to our hyper-sensitivity to voluntary risk taking - we have become frightened rabbits, frozen by fear, by the slightest risk. We need to shake off timidity and do the hard things that make us human, that make us Americans.