Like many geeks, I listened to the State of the Union address by President Obama while watching reactions from peers on Twitter.  While I normally steer clear of politics online (because you never know how it may come back to you), tonight's speech caught my eye when President Obama started to talk about the goals he has for the United States.  Goals for better education, more clean energy, and being the leading county worldwide for use of electric vehicles.  Reaction to these goals seemed to come down party lines.  Democrats praising the President for his vision and leadership.  Republicans questioning how can the country afford to make these types of changes.  But why are these goal so far fetched?

Fifty years ago another President made similar lofty goals.  President Kennedy, in an address to Congress, pledged his support to sending a man to the moon by the end of the decade.  This pledge was made just one day after Alan Shepard became the first American in space.  It would be nine months later that John Glenn would become the first American to orbit the earth.  Can you imagine someone saying we're going to build a plane that will cross the Atlantic just nine months after the Wright Brothers' inaugural flight?  Probably not.

But doesn't it make you wonder what can be done if we actually put our heads and hearts into what's possible?  What kind of progress could we make if we put the rhetoric aside and look forward to achieving what is actually possible?

Now imagine the world you want for your kids fifty years from now.  What are you willing to do to get there?