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# Wake up, America, or jump off the nearest mountain
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/wake-up-america-or-jump-off-the-nearest-mountain/
- Published: 2003-02-17T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T01:37:00.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Santa Monica, #archive-import, Homeless

*By FROM THE STREET By Charles Springer*

As I was flying home the morning of the first from China, I was not aware that as I flew over Hawaii the space shuttle had came down to earth like a meteor and crashed across 2 states. I am very heartbroken that this had to happen. And as I read more and more about it, I become increasingly distressed as to the reason for this disaster.

I have read that N.A.S.A. had been shopping for computer equipment for the shuttles on Ebay and Yahoo!!! This is a perfect example of how much the federal government takes care of its own people. The space shuttle program’s budget gets slashed so that our government can take care of the world’s poor, help third world nations to develop and basically line the pockets of special interest groups. This is an example of some of the things I have been saying in my column for months now.

Maybe these brave men and women who died can be an example of what we as Americans should be doing, instead of sitting back watching MTV and thinking that everything in this country is fine and dandy. We should be out making our voices heard to the ones whom were “elected” to run this country.

In my short visit to China, I realized that we have the freedom to make our voices heard. To tell our elected officials what WE as citizens of this country WANT them to do for US. NOT what THEY want to do for THEMSELVES at our expense. These people are not governing this country for the people at all. Seven lives which were lost because the program, which has been a BIG boost for foreign relations with other countries who are helping build the space station, could have been saved had this and previous administrations spent money to keep up with the times. How can you not see this? N.A.S.A. shopping on Ebay and Yahoo for OUTDATED computer equipment? The parts that they have are no longer being made because some of the contractors who first worked on the shuttles are NO LONGER IN BUSINESS!!! And they have been forced to cannibalize one shuttle for the sake of sending up the other on schedule.

We as American people have to start to wake up from this creeping malaise that has permeated our culture. We have to wake up to the reality that our freedoms are being taken from us, and we are letting it happen. We have to wake up and let our voices be heard by Capitol Hill and let these people know who is in charge of this DEMOCRATIC nation. If we don’t do this soon, and with the authority given to us by the Constitution of the United States, we might as well just jump off the nearest mountain.

This shuttle disaster should be a wake up call to us as Americans of how this country’s finances are being mishandled and misappropriated for things that don’t help us as the people who make up this country. We need education, health care, affordable housing. Not a useless war or the oil that will come with it. We need to stop and think about the future of this country and stop believing all that we are told by the propaganda machine run by the government. If we don’t, we all might as well move to China.

(Charles Springer, who is a regular columnist, is homeless and living in Santa Monica.)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on February 17, 2003.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/021703.pdf?ref=smdp.com)