Kesha Rogers:
Mobilize the American People
To Restore a Vision of the Future!
Feb. 12— On Lincoln’s birthday, February 12, 2016, former Democratic Congressional nominee Kesha Rogers was the featured speaker on the LaRouche PAC weekly webcast. Rogers, from Houston, Texas, is famous for her Congressional campaigns that called for the impeachment of Barack Obama and the revival of NASA. She was introduced by LaRouche PAC leader Matthew Ogden.
 Schiller Institute
Kesha Rogers emphasized that the Space program requires new discoveries, and is a necessary action by man to bring the future into being.
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Matthew Ogden: To begin with, we have the responsibility to take a step back and look at the much bigger picture. We have a responsibility of leadership, as an organization, and as a movement which involves the viewers of this Webcast tonight. That responsibility of leadership requires us to go far beyond these immediate challenges, to look into the future, and to imagine what mankind can be, what mankind must be, and to take the necessary action to bring that future into being.
The recent attention to the incomparable genius of Albert Einstein that has been forced upon us by a very interesting outcome of an experimental investigation that has just had results that were reported yesterday, forces us to consider, however, not just the outcome of that experiment, but to consider what mankind as a species is capable of, and what the identity of mankind as a species must become in a self-conscious way.
Man Is Not an Earthling
This is something that we’re going to take up in much more detail a little bit later in the broadcast tonight, but what we begin to consider, is that the space program as we knew it from President John F. Kennedy and others, is the necessary ingredient of a mission of any civilization which is worthy of representing mankind as a species on this planet. Mankind must not be a creature of the Earth. Man is not an Earthling. Mankind must be a creature of the stars! He must learn, both physically and mentally, how to navigate that wide ocean which is outer space. He must come to know what he does not know. He must come to understand the inner workings of the Galaxy which he is an integral part of, and also other galactic systems. And, he must come to know his role as a species within that complex of galactic systems which comprise the universe as we know it today.
In doing so, man affirms his nature as a species completely unique among all species. Mr. LaRouche was emphatic that the insights of Vladimir Vernadsky—and his understanding of the noösphere, and of the uniqueness of the human mind and the human species as a whole, setting mankind apart from the animals—are something which very few people understand today, but were the result of a very crucial investigation into the nature of the human race. Coincidentally, Vladimir Vernadsky and Albert Einstein were direct contemporaries.
 Einstein: Library of Congress
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The investigation of the universe opened up by a Space program affirms the insights of Vladimir Vernadsky and Albert Einstein regarding the uniqueness of the human species over all other species.
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We made great leaps, giant leaps, in this direction of man as a galactic species, not an earthbound species, with our landing of men on the Moon during the Apollo project of the 1960s and 1970s, and through other great accomplishments of that era. To a certain extent, the legacy of that era has continued along certain trajectories. But since that time, when the mission of man leaving this planet was a professed mission of the United States government itself under the figure of John F. Kennedy, since that time, our progress in that direction has been moving backwards, compared to where we should have been, where we should have come by now, had we continued that directionality, and especially compared to what other countries, most notably China, have now accomplished and are committed to accomplishing further in the very near future ahead.
Where There Is No Vision
As President John F. Kennedy was wont to say in several of his speeches, where he quoted Scripture, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” That is absolutely true today. That is what the last 50 years of a “backwards progress” have brought us, as an American people—as we’ve presented repeatedly over the past several weeks in this webcast—and as a trans-Atlantic system, where we face an absolutely dire economic, social, and military crisis today.
 NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Collection
Man leaving this planet was a once a professed mission of the United States government. Here, President John F. Kennedy announces his intention, to a joint session of Congress on May 25, 1961, to land a man on the Moon and return him to Earth.
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Our job here this evening, is to take the necessary steps to restore that vision, and there is nobody more qualified to do that, in my opinion, than my good friend Kesha Rogers.
Kesha Rogers: Thank you, Matthew! Well, I think what you’ve laid out, and also in the discussions we had with Mr. LaRouche, one thing that’s important to point out is, this is the level of discussion which is absolutely critical to revive the educational and human commitment that has been lost in our society. The real question is, when we’re dealing with the space program—and this is what’s not being discussed in any of the political debates or in the space community itself—this question of what is the nature of man and what is the responsibility to understand the mind of man as different from any other species, animal species, out there.
The Nature of Man
I’ve gone to a number of events in the NASA community with certain representatives of the space community. You have a discussion where people want to talk about innovation or something of that nature; but what’s missing right now, is that there’s no real discussion of the principle of true discovery, of the principle of true creativity. If you’re going to get back to the foundation of what our space program truly represents, then that has to be the focal point of what is understood and what we are fighting for. Looking at the space program, one of the things that is extremely important right now, is that what has been a dividing line, is this very question of what is the nature of man. It’s not about money; it’s not about what projects are more reasonable or will actually work better; it is what is the destiny of mankind to discover and to do what has never been done before.
I love the remarks by Mike Griffin, former NASA Administrator, who I believe made them in 2006, working under the [George W.] Bush Administration, who demonstrated the idea that mankind has always committed itself to doing that which is going to leave something behind for the children, grandchildren, next generations, like the building of great cathedrals. We think about Brunelleschi or Charlemagne, those individuals who played a significant role in creating something that they weren’t going to be able to see themselves, that they may not be able to participate in; but they knew that their responsibility was to actually create for the future. I think that’s the ultimate question right now. What has been done in the progress of human society has been done with the intention of creating for the future.
Zeus versus Prometheus
When you remove the conception of the future, you deny that human beings have the ability to determine or act upon that future, as was the understanding of the fight between Zeus and Prometheus. Prometheus had a higher conception, that mankind can know, and not only know, can act on and create the future.
How do we do this? We do this through discovery. We do this through understanding that human beings don’t have to live like their fathers and grandfathers before them, like the beavers before them. We can create new discoveries! That’s what we’re finding, which has been essential in understanding what the space program brings us; in the understanding of the new principles that were put forth in developing the beautiful ideas that foster the creation of such wonderful and beautiful cathedrals, that mankind not only just enjoys, in terms of aesthetic beauty, but also which have created the ability to master science that had never been known before.
That’s what the space program represents! The same idea is recognized when you look at music, what great Classical composition truly represents. The fostering of our society has been, always, to take the discoveries of mankind to the next level, to a higher conception, to a higher principle of mankind. The space program represents not just a program in itself, but what is the destiny of mankind.
Krafft Ehricke
I want to reiterate the beautiful example, again, of Krafft Ehricke, because I think this gets at the truly beautiful and fundamental conception as to why we have to have a space program. It is only for those very reasons, of the conception of what is the destiny of mankind, what is our responsibility. This is what we should be addressing in our educational systems; that, as Ehricke explained, “The concept of space travel carries with it enormous impact, because it challenges man on practically all fronts of his physical and spiritual existence. The idea of traveling to other celestial bodies reflects to the highest degree the independence and agility of the human mind. It lends ultimate dignity to man’s technical and scientific endeavors. Above all, it touches on the philosophy of his very existence.”
 CBS-TV
Space pioneer Krafft Ehricke said the Space program “lends ultimate dignity to man’s technical and scientific endeavors,” and “touches on the philosophy of his very existence.” Here Ehricke shows Walter Cronkite a possible design for a hospital in orbit.
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What we have to address, in terms of looking at what has been lost in the space program, is that very conception of touching on that which is human, and identifying that in which only mankind has the ability, based on our creative powers, created in the image of the Creator, to be able to participate. We have taken that away. We have taken away, through the actions of the last two administrations, through a policy of capitulation to Wall Street and a bankrupt financial system, the idea of our mission, as China has clearly set it forward.
The paradox is that we have been denied access, through the insanity of certain Congress members and people who have taken away the potential for human beings to collaborate on discoveries that are going to impact all of mankind, by denying the access of NASA per se to work with China, when we had a clear understanding that nations had to work together if we were going to address the problems on Earth facing mankind, and that they were going to be addressed through making discoveries that would benefit all mankind.
What Type of Future?
So that’s what we have to address right now. Can we get back to that understanding once again? What is going to be our direction? What type of future are we going to create for society and civilization? I think what we are seeing coming down the pike, a continued escalation toward war and chaos, means that we have a clear dividing line in front of us. This is extremely important: What the space program represents gives us a commitment again toward restoring the direction of mankind, and doing that which is our responsibility and intention to do.
