Congressman Al Green Observes 60^th Anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s “We Choose to go to the Moon” Speech

(Houston, TX) — On Monday, September 12, 2022, Congressman Al Green released the following statement:

“President Kennedy’s ‘We Choose to go to the Moon’ address, when examined in context with his inaugural address, explicates how Kennedy engendered a we-can-do-it, it-must-be-done attitude into the zeitgeist of our time. In his inaugural address he indicated, ‘…let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own.’”

“Nearly two years later, he reduced the impossible to the difficult and the difficult to a matter of choice when he proclaimed in his address at Rice University on the nation’s space effort, ‘We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.’ His response to the naysayers and doubting Thomases was captured early in his message when he extoled, ‘This city of Houston, this State of Texas, this country of the United States was not built by those who waited and rested and wished to look behind them.’”

“‘The exploration of space will go ahead whether we join it or not…no nation which expects to be the leader of other nations can expect to stay behind in the race for space.’ President Kennedy led a great nation to believe that although this magnificent insular in space that we call Earth is our genesis, our preeminent destiny is among the stars.”