Set the stage.
A young president. Houston, Texas, September 12th, 1962.
In front of 40,000 people at Rice Stadium President Kennedy stated:
The vast stretches of the unknown, and the unanswered, and the unfinished; far outstretched our collective comprehension.
This speech was a continuationof President Kennedy’s drive to push the limits of our space program to land a person on the moon before the decade of 60s was completed.
Ahead was unknown. The how was unknown. What to expect was unknown. But we dared to dream. We dared to be bold. We dared to be different. Dare I say, we dared to lead.
Do we still?
I do not believe any big-bad parma company is stopping the progression of steps forward (and I may certainly be naive in that aspect) in moving the diabetes dial but I do believe we need to respect the drive forward. We need to find that passion again. Bold thinkers like Ed Damiano and Camillo Ricordi and others are certainly out there but are we, as a nation, supporting the efforts with the ‘boldness’ of landing a person on the moon? I think not.
It’s time to dream to the point where we prove it wrong or make it happen. We need to take chances again. Collaborate again. Be bold again.
It should not be a political football, this search to move the dial on diabetes forward, it should also be like it was in different times when a Democrat President suggested the idea of landing in the moon, and the actual event happened on a Republican President’s watch. Why would that be wrong? The world of present ‘agendas’ is surely saddening is it not? All can accept some blame, But all can change the tide as well.
We need to continue in driving the progress in diabetes forward. And as President Kennedy stated, “…..this country of the United States was not built by those who waited, and rested, and willed to look behind them…..”
For all of our kids’ future and the future of all those loving with diabetes; we need to once again grasp the passion to do something incredible, bold, and unheard of; we need to once again……….lead.
I am a diabetes dad.
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