ABQJOURNAL OPINION/LETTERS: Letters To the Editor

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Letters To the Editor


Return Spaceport to Flight Path
        YOUR STORY ON Spaceport America in last Sunday's Journal accurately detailed many past and upcoming challenges, but it missed several essential points regarding this important project:
        • First, the spaceport is coming in at $209 million — well under the legislatively approved budget of $225 million;
        • Second, the spaceport is on schedule and will be ready to operate when Virgin Galactic is ready to launch;
        • Third, the Spaceport Authority just received an unqualified financial audit for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2010;
        The project has momentum.
        Contrary to what Sen. Tim Jennings said about legislators being kept in the dark, the authority the last six months made detailed presentations to three different interim committees and invited the entire Legislature on a tour of the facility. I personally called Jennings to invite him to the October dedication — he declined.
        The other point the story missed is that Spaceport America is more than a construction project — it is the launch pad for a whole new commercial spaceflight industry. Since 2003, New Mexico has succeeded in putting itself in a leadership position to attract this new industry and its potential for thousands of new jobs.
        It's important that Gov. Susana Martinez very soon articulate her support and solidarity with the emerging commercial spaceflight industry, including the new National Space Policy and the president's proposal to restructure NASA. The reason is simple: If the Martinez administration supports the new industry, the new industry is likely to support New Mexico with its companies, jobs and taxes.
        Spaceport America, and the grander vision of being on the ground floor of a new industry, seems today to have been put on hold, pending review. The organization is today without an executive director, general counsel and board of directors. A transition team will review the organization's finances and operations. Meanwhile, the commercial spaceflight industry is watching the state closely, awaiting the next steps. I hope the Martinez administration unveils its plan soon and relieves the paralysis.
        RICK HOMANS
        Former Board Chair and Executive Director, New Mexico Spaceport Authority

Opportunity Better Than Benefit
        BENEFITS ARE compensation. Benefits could be lots of vacation time, free coffee at work, etc. They also include such things as unemployment, medical, welfare, housing, education and "quota" benefits. Benefits come at some one else's expense.
        Opportunities are the availability of chances to improve oneself with work and contributing sweat equity to achieve goals. Opportunities cost no one anything.
        Society gains from opportunities and suffers from providing benefits. Benefits enslave the beneficiary and are addictive, while opportunity frees the beneficiary and yields self-satisfaction and pride. After a while people who receive benefits look at them as entitlements and demand them. These people are unwilling to take advantage of opportunities and will vote for whomever will provide them with the most benefits. People who take advantage of opportunities are proud of their accomplishments and are not eager to pay for the benefits of others.
        ... So-called progressives, or leftists, prey on the group that feels entitled to benefits, offering them more and more to ensnare them in their addiction, while conservatives try to cater to and encourage those who appreciate opportunities by lowering the obstructions.
        Eventually the progressive left's policy is self-defeating or, as Margaret Thatcher said, "pretty soon you run out of other people's money."
        LAWRENCE FORD
        Albuquerque

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