View From The Ditch Bank

SINCE THE CONSTITUTION--I stated that I would have only two more blogs on the subject of the United States. I will hold myself to that, at least for now. So here is the first one of the two. After the Constitution was ratified, the country settled down to actually become the UNITED STATES of AMERICA. However, just a few short years later, the British began stirring up trouble again. With hostile acts against the U.S. beginning in 1807, the U.S. formally declared war against Britain on June 19, 1812. Just like the recently ended revolutionary war, the U.S. lost a lot of battles before the tide began to turn in their favor. I could write a long blog about this war, but will only say this. It was during the battle of Fort McHenry, in September of 1814, that Francis Scott Key, being held against his will on a boat in the harbor, was inspired to write the Star Spangled Banner. If you have never read an account of this battle, I encourage you to do so. If it does not stir feelings in your breast and bring a lump to your throat, I am sorry. It does to me. A treaty to end this was was signed December 24, 1814. I could blog about Abraham Lincoln and the Civil war. ( What was civil about it? ) I could blog about the building of the transcontinental railroad and the settling and taming of the West. I could blog about World War 1, the roaring twenty's and the depression of the 1930's. I could write about World War Two, but will only mention that after this war, the U.S. Government established the G.I. Bill, that helped many of the returning Vets to finance an education and jump start the economy with jobs. I could write about the decade I grew up in, the 1950's and the Korean War, which wasn't actually a declared war, but a designated Police action. I will finish this blog, however, with the end of the 50's and President Dwight D. Eisenhower and the beginning of the 60's and President John F. Kennedy. In the 50's, Russia was experimenting with space flight, and launched a space satellite called Sputnik 1 on October 4, 1957. This turned the attention of the U.S. towards it's own space program and the space race began. It was under President Eisenhower and his advisers and the congress of the late 50's that funded and eventually passed the National Aeronautics and Space Act. President Eisenhower signed this act on July 29, 1958. NASA acquired and/or took over all the then existing space labs and their employees and their budget of $100 million a year. The space program continued under President Kennedy, who declared that the U.S. would put a man on the moon by the end of the decade, and then with President Johnson after Kennedy's death. I won't blog about all the things, the research and testing, even my small part in all this as it would take more than one blog to complete. Just find it in the many histories if you are interested. And the U.S. did put a man on the moon, landing them there on July 20, 1969. There were more moon missions and then the space shuttle program. A lot of money and research has gone into the next generation of space vehicles. Now the current administration wants to scrap all this, along with NASA, and give Billions to Russia, to carry our Astronauts to the International Space Station. The opinion of this uneducated dweller is that all those Billions should be spent right here in the good ol' US of A continuing the programs that are already in place and not rely on a foreign government that is not sure if it wants to be our friend or not. It is my opinion that any of you out there in blogger land, if you are actually reading this blog, you should contact your Representatives and Senators and let them know what you think about this. I hope you feel the same way I do. I feel that the current administration should take a good hard look at what his predecessors have done with this program, and then continue this program and not weaken the U.S. in this area. And that is The View From The Ditch Bank.