The Bright Side of Sending Jobs Overseas

NY Times ^ | February 15, 2004 | By EDUARDO PORTER

[NewRomeTacitus]

"I am perfectly qualifed for those jobs, since I wore a headset and talked to people thru a microphone when I used to launch space shuttles."

So it comes down to: talk through the clown head or talk to the head clown!

Seriously, though, thank you for the fine work you did. For every glorified astronaut there is a legion of people behind the scenes that get them there.

[snopercod]

Thanks for that. Like I wrote in my resignation letter, it was an honor to have been a small part of the manned space program.

[snopercod]

Well, I quit, so no sympathy is in order.

[Paul C. Jesup]

Dare I ask why?

[snopercod]

I quit for many reasons, some of which are not mentioned in my my resignation letter.

I am grateful to have been able to work in the US Space Shuttle program for the last 13+ years of my life. We Americans have been able to accomplish what others thought impossible only a few years ago -- providing reliable access to space in a reusable spacecraft that could maneuver, deliver and retrieve payloads, and then fly back and land on a runway. We accomplished this goal as Americans have always done it, by using our abilities to “push the outside of the envelope” in the search for technical perfection in the advancement of human knowledge.

I am truly proud to have been some small part of that effort.

ecently, however, it has become obvious that while those of us here at KSC have been doing what we have always done – safely processing and launching the Shuttles -- the goals and mission of the program have been redirected.

This once-proud program, which sparked the imaginations of millions of Americans such as myself, has seemingly been reduced to some kind of pathetic international welfare agency, transferring billions of US taxpayer dollars directly away from our professed mission and into the accounts of whichever foreign “partners” are favored by our current president.

These so-called “partners” have siphoned off American taxpayer money for purposes know only to themselves and provided nothing of value in return to the US taxpayers. The hardware and services that they cynically promised to provide have not materialized and probably never will.

Thanks to the policies of our current administration, the US Space Shuttle program now finds itself being held hostage to the whims of a miserable socialist country run by a declining alcoholic buffoon and a communist legislature.

How could our so-called leaders have let this happen?

Worst of all, it seems that seats on the few remaining Space Shuttle flights are now being handed out in return for political favors or to support causes unrelated to the exploration of space and other than the furtherance of our technical knowledge. Besides being an affront to those of us who once loved the space program, this new policy is a slap in the face to all those dedicated astronauts who have spent years (in some cases 30 years) honing their talents to better serve their love of space exploration.

These new trends are (or should be) alarming to all of us who believe that ability should be the sole criterion in Astronaut selection, and science or “envelope-pushing” should be the sole criteria for mission planning. The American Manned Space Program cannot and will not survive on any other terms.

In summary, I find that I can no longer allow myself to participate in what has become a cheap travesty of the former glory of the US Manned Space Program.

It is with great sadness, therefore, that I tender my resignation...

[Paul C. Jesup]

You know, you should write a non-fiction book on this subject. You might make a fortune from it.

[NewRomeTacitus]

Beautifully stated. Now the SOB's, despite never delivering their station component (costing us three times more than if we had just done it ourselves in the first place) have the sheer gall to ask if they can be part of the next mission.

Let me roll the donut they can...you get it. Hope they choke on their caviar.

[Edmund Burke]

Another bright point about sending jobs overseas is that more Americans get to travel and see the world.

[LowCountryJoe]

Do I detect a bit of "class envy"? That's very conservative of you, now, isn't it?

[1rudeboy]

Well then, that means that no one is getting no jobs no where.

[contessa machiaveli]

sorry,no cigar. if there's any class envy, it's the other way around.
you see i'm the one with a sports car and a nice house in the burbs...mortgage paid in full. i have a job i love because i work from home doing very specialized work and i choose the amount of hours i want to work (which is usually 25 per week max). my husband is an attorney (not trial).
why do you assume if someone actually cares about certain issues they're either envious or liberal?
rethink your stereotypes and stop listening to rush.

[LowCountryJoe]

It (the post) walked and sounded like a duck, so I assumed it was a duck. Thank you for making the clarification and setting my assumption straight.

[Paul C. Jesup]

Well then, that means that no one is getting no jobs no where.

Exactly, for native born citizens, it is genocide by starvation and slow torture.

[contessa machiaveli]

i should have known a southern gentleman would be gracious enough to apologize. accepted.