Reaching for the ‘moon’, our time is now.

On May 25^th, 1961 John F. Kennedy laid out a vision for the USA to land an American on the moon and safely return him/her back to earth. JFK realized that landing on the moon was not as important as setting a bold vision that would capture all America’s attention to strive for greatness and not settle for mediocrity.

In his now famous “Man on the Moon Address”, JFK stated, “Now it is time to take longer strides--time for a great new American enterprise--time for this nation to take a clearly leading role in space achievement, which in many ways may hold the key to our future on Earth.”

It has been almost 50 years since JFK provided a vision for which all Americans and the world’s citizens could look towards as an example to better themselves, albeit in school, at work, or the global community.

Is there not a better time than in 2010 to set such a bold and focused vision once again for America? After almost a decade of zero economic growth and job creation, with unscrupulous business practices on Wall Street that brought our economy to the brink, it is time to raise up and strive for a better future for our children and children’s children.

Today, one in eight Americans now receives food stamps, including one in four children who live in poverty. Furthermore WHO estimates that almost 50% (1 billion) of all children on this planet (2.2 billion) live in poverty. Of these children over 1.4 million die each year from lack of access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation.

While not as potentially captivating as putting an American on the moon, I suggest we strive to find a way to set bold goals to eliminate childhood poverty, and ensure that all infants under five years of age receive adequate nutrition by 2030.

JFK believed that innovation in science, business, medicine, and education is not the byproduct of a few privileged members of our global society, but rather an outcome of all the world's citizens efforts to reach their potential through equal opportunity and by breaking down the barriers that cause poverty, tyranny, and illiteracy. Let us once again rise up and take on these challenges through bold new goals and vision in 2010 and beyond.