I was watching a National Geographic special last night and they included a clip from JFK’s speech at Rice Universiy where he addresses why we should attempt to put a man on the moon. One line has always bothered me
What were the “other things” JFK was referring to?
Seducing Marilyn Monroe wasn’t easy and took the best of JFK’s skills, but he was willing to accept the challenge.
And he won!
Searching on “JFK speech Rice” gives the entire text of the speech.
The paragraph which immediately precedes the one you quote reads: “There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet. Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation many never come again. But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?”
Which raises the question, why does Rice play Texas?
Very funny… well remember it was the early sixties and there were lots of other initiatives that we were working on besides the Race to the Moon… although that was the most visible one of course.
For example, we were exploring the bottom of the ocean, doing high energy physics stuff, trying to come up with alternate energy sources etc. It was a very busy time scientifically and I think he was referring to the myriad of projects that were on the table at that time without naming them all…
>>Which raises the question, why does Rice play Texas?
tu plays Rice so that they can run up the score excessively, showing what good sports they are. Against Rice, A&M puts in their second string, third string, random fans from the stadium, tu keeps first string in till the end.
I read that speech a couple of times last night before posting this morning and it just didn’t click that way. The decade part had thrown me and I was racking my brain trying to figure out what “other things” JFK was pushing at the same time that was going to be on a par with a moon landing. Forest for the trees, I guess.
Sheesh, I get it now. You could reword as: We choose to go to the moon…climb tall mountains, attempt to get Marilyn in the sack, and play the tea-sippers because they are hard. The “we” is a collective humanity “we” and not referring specifically to just the government.
Thanks all.
lame wise-crack
Why does Rice play Texas? Makes the Longhorns feel better when reporting to their Owl bosses.
Hijack continued: Rice doesn’t play Texas anymore. They’re in different conferences. At the time, Rice was one of the luckless cannon fodder schools in the Southwest Conference. Since then Texas and three equally unimportant schools left to join the then-Big Eight, now Big Twelve.