gagarin.

So today of course marks the fiftieth anniversary of Yuri Gagarin. Despite accolades and applauds from scientists and politicians on both sides of the Iron Curtain, it stung on this side. For sure. The Soviets had beat us. It didn't matter that less than a month later we repeated the feat by hurling Alan Shepard up into space. But Gagarin's accomplishment - and thereby the Soviet's - did achieve one very important thing for this country ... it launched our obsession of sending a man to the moon.

Some may postulate that it was out of fear that the Soviets - should they gain the upper hand in the ever-escalating space race - might set up shop on the moon and build a base that would allow them to launch ICBMs back at us that drove our obsession of landing a man on the moon. But I tend to think (and I say 'tend to think' cos I, well, wasn't born yet) that was either based on paranoia or just a clever disguise to mask the real reason for our obsession: we had to win.

We as in the whole country. You. Me. Your next door neighbor. The milkman. Even the President. Afterall, we were the United States. We had something to prove.

So Kennedy - just a month and a half after Gagarin's orbital flight - then issued the proclamation that we must - by the end of that decade - land a man on the moon.

Some derided the dream as lunacy. Others viewed it as just another strategic move in the Cold War chess match between us and them. So what if it was totally masked in the name of defeating Communism. Rather than a battlefield in Afghanistan under the guise of the almighty Oil, Kennedy chose instead space as the loftier field of battle on which to wage war with the Soviets.

He cautioned Congress of its impending expense ($9 billion dollars in 1960) but they approved it without even batting an eye. And - much to the President's delight - the country answered his siren song. The entire country. Every one of us (I know, like I said technically I wasn't born yet but I'm just being figurative here).

For nine years the Apollo space program made the nightly news as it soared ever higher (yeah, literally and figuratively this time). The technological hurdles were immense. Certainly daunting. At times thought impossible. But collectively - and with the support of the Congress and the President on down to every American whose blood pulsed to beat the Soviets and prove our country was still the best - and with our brightest minds and technology at the time - Kennedy's decree became reality of course on July twentieth of ninety-sixty-nine.

How had we accomplished this seemingly impossible task? This seemingly insurmountable goal? In nine short years?

It is hard to imagine now I think just how insurmountable - how absurd - it probably seemed. We had committed ourselves to going from merely hurling a man into Earth orbit above the stratosphere to launching a crew at escape velocity out past the Earth's comforting gravitational pull (or the solar system's push, depending on your theoretical view of gravitational force) out and out ... to the moon. But not just to the moon for maybe a quick peek at it up close. No. To physically land on the moon. And not just to land. But to return safely back home of course.

Yeah. Wild. Insane.

But we did it. We did it ... huge. And we did it before the end of that decade - within ten years of first orbiting the Earth.

How?

How - fifty years ago - before the advent of all our (seemingly) new-fangled technologies - had we accomplished such an ambitious feat? We look back at video from mission control and gawk at the now-archaic computers thinking how did we do it with those things? It was this question that bugged me all day.

We did it, I surmise, because of one reason. And one reason only. Because (wait for it) ... the mandate came to us from the President.

Sure, America was all hot and bothered about Communism. And we were smug. And we had gotten undeniably beat to the punch by the Soviets with Gagarin's historic flight. But still - Kennedy did a fantabulous job of riling us up. He got us inspired. In the days of ordinary men still wearing ties to work - we were motivated. For a lot of reasons. National pride. Defeating Communism. Because our President told us to be.

And we succeeded.

So it wasn't so much the how? that bothered me I guess, but rather the more poignant question of why? Why don't we see that sort of national ambition anymore? Are we that apathetic? That tuned out? That absorbed in our Facebooks and whether or not our tweets have been retweeted to give a damn about anything meaningful and important and big and exciting?

In short ... could we accomplish Kennedy's goal with the same technology then but with the apathy we collectively as a nation display today?

That's what bothered me all day. And it bothered me because it seemed rather painfully obvious the answer to that last question was a big, fat resounding NO. As in absolutely not. No way José.

And - unfortunately - to prove it, all we have to do is substitute X for Y where X equals landing a man on the moon in under ten years and Y equals, oh - I don't know - say finding an ecological, economical and sustainable alternative fuel source to the big, fat, smelly, disgusting oil on which our society and economy has lived off like the prodigal, un-motivated forty-something-year-old son still living with and mooching off his mother.

I surmise an alternative already exists. The technology to discover and produce it anyways. We may have even already discovered it. But who the bloody hell cares? Shut up already Britny Spears (sp?) released a new album and I just accepted my thousandth friend request on the Facebook.

But that's not entirely fair. Because it's not really that, afterall. It's not us necessarily. It's them. And by them I mean quite literally our pathetic, corporate-run lame-duck government.

My theory so goes that back in the 1960s (before good ol' Reaganomics) corporations were not what they are today. And our government was not controlled by them. So the President could issue an insane mandate like 'within ten years we're gonna land a man on the moon' and Congress could respond with a boisterous 'hell yeah we are!' And that ... that then inspired the whole country. And yeah - we got it done.

So imagine for a moment the same vitality. The same vigor. Obama getting up from behind his cloak of corporate politics and interests and insisting that we - the United States of America - by the end of the decade - find and implement a replacement energy source for oil. I know, it sounds absurd. Funny, actually. But wait ... so did landing on the moon. And then imagine Congress gets on board. Shifts our taxpayer dollars from sleezy bank bailouts and hostile military efforts in our undying attempt to secure every last drip of oil for ourselves to a fully-funded, blank-check program to turn the tide for humanity by ending our dependence on fossil fuels. We have the brains. The know-how.

So the scientists get to work. There's a palpable fever in the air as we race to come up with the solution. Maybe other countries join in the fun because it's not us vs. them anymore and like it or not America is seen as a leader (which is a double-edged sword, cos when we suck - like we do now - the whole world knows it). It (gasp) makes the nightly news and we (even bigger gasp) actually tune in.

Think we could do it?

Of course we could. Absolutely. No effing doubt about it.

Think it'll happen?

Yes. Absolutely ... when we run out of oil.

When we realize it's either that or the end of our society and our iPads as we have come to know. When we realize it's either that or back to our nomadic ways. Or even better - our extinction. Then we'll frantically invent the solution. It might just save us. Just like the kid who's used to getting all A's so he waits until the day before the big final exam to study thinking he's got it under his belt. Maybe he passes. Likely. Maybe he doesn't. But if he does, then no harm done, right? Cos he got to party that much more without bothering himself with studying.

And it's not really our problem afterall. And by our I now mean you and me. Here and now.

Predictions for peak oil have been and still are all over the place so all of those filthy rich dudes in navy suits running the corporations that in turn run those filthy rich dudes in navy suits that run our government will be turning into oil themselves before we run out. And in the meantime they get to party that much more.

So where's the inspiration?

Why isn't there as much inspiration in doing what's right - if even for those who have not yet lived - and thus for the ultimate survival of our species if I dare say - as there is in beating the Soviets to the moon? Why must we collectively continue to wade in apathy and self-centeredness rather than being like the geeky, proactive kid who sits up in front with his square-framed glasses answering all of the teacher's questions and acing all the tests not because he got lucky but because he wanted - no, needed - to get every answer right. To prove to himself, to his teacher, his parents, his friends - the whole bloody world so-to-speak - that he could. Deep down we were jealous of that kid. We didn't admit it at the time but we did to ourselves and our own kids years later.

So bravo Gagarin. Bravo.

Our past is chocked full of accomplishments as great as this. Greater, even. And we have so much untapped potential. What though ... the question I always come back to ... what of our future?