The path to success

I watched in awe the night of Nov. 10 as a live television broadcast showed the United States sending four astronauts (three Americans, one German) to the International Space Station. If anything represents the United States and its future more graphically than this launch, I don’t know what that might be.

The future of the United States lies in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and not in the lunacy that currently surrounds politics in this country. We can’t seem to agree on much, and therefore stifle our future. The future can be bright if the citizens of the United States follow an orderly path that leads them to success, and STEM definitely defines that path. The politics of today too frequently suggest that the United States is headed on the wrong path, a path of impending and certain destruction.

Through my career as a meteorologist, I visited schools often and spoke with various age levels from elementary school through college. My message was clear: Education is the path to success in life. I was often asked why anyone needs to learn English or history or other subjects that are taught in school. My reply was that all topics that are taught in school are necessary to be truly educated and arm each of us with facts and reality, to carry us through life.

The technology of today presented the launch Wednesday night in a very orderly and graphic manner by showing the “staging” of the rockets and even a landing of the booster back at the surface after it had been released. This whole sequence of events in such a short period of time showed how far we have progressed in space travel.

Now, we need to achieve that same success by progressing, in time, as a nation that has influence in the world and beyond, by restoring order and coming together, and by doing so, move more successfully into the future.

GEORGE WILKEN

Little Rock