Dare to Dream: Let's Make Energy Independence America's Moonshot?

A while back I read an article in which Bono, frontman for U2, said that ending poverty was the next moon-shot for the rich countries of the world.

While I don't disagree that this is a noble goal, I think poverty is a subjective term. In fact, instead of ending poverty, why shouldn't the new world simply offer unlimited opportunity?

How do you achieve unlimited opportunity? I say it starts with energy independence.

Am I a dreamer, or some Utopian preacher?

I don't know and I don't care. Once people thought going to the moon was dreaming, but now we know it can be done. Where is America's, the world's, passion to do something great again?

We the people of the world live in interesting times. Our natural resources are running out or becoming too polluted to use, just as the population of the planet is exploding.

Can we really conserve our way through this disaster?

No. I'm not trying to diminish conservation in any way. Conservation is extremely important and absolutely necessary, but technology is even more important. So, why can't technology be used to help people rather than just to profit from them?

As soon as President Bush told America that we must end our dependence on foreign oil, critics couldn't wait to say why this will never happen.

Obviously, it won't happen with the leadership of critics, and why should we follow critics anyway? Critics aren't leaders by their very nature.

But it isn't just Bush. Recently, Sweden announced that it wants to be oil independent by 2020.

Impossible, the critics again say.

So what? !

When I was in college I used to love reading about the psychological principal of self-fulfilling prophecies and the statistical evidence supporting such theories. Inevitably, achievement starts with belief, as does lack of achievement. If you believe it isn't possible, then the battle has already been lost.

When you dream big, even falling a little short achieves much more than not even trying.

Why not make energy independence America's goal by 2030? Why not?

Maybe we find it is impossible or that it will take an extra decade, or maybe we make some completely unexpected scientific breakthrough that makes energy independence even more simple and more unlimited than expected.

American schools are already failing their students and the future with their inability to teach science. Why not make energy independence the core goal of every student's education?

Today, America is leading the world towards nothing but complacency and satisfaction with the status quo. Why are we so angry, apathetic, hateful and partisan? Because our lives have no substance, no vision for the potential of the future. We're more concerned with McDonalds or Chipotle for lunch, or whether Kobe will score a 100.

Is this the best America has to offer? I hope not.

It's time to put a muzzle on the haters, critics and naysayers. It's time to shoot for the moon. It's time to shoot for energy independence. Not because of pollution or terrorism but for freedom. Freedom to dare to dream. Freedom to believe we can live on a beautiful planet, in peace. Freedom to believe we can settle the moon and Mars. Freedom to believe that the potential of life is truly unlimited.

When I was a boy I believed I would live in a Jetson's type world. If we were spending trillions on technology that frees people, rather than controls people, we'd already be there.

Humynkind is at an impasse. We must either progress into the future together, or regress into the past. Technology and energy independence are not a means to an end, but a means to a new beginning.

The dream of energy independence doesn't have to be a battle against oil companies and the energy paradigms of the world, the dream of energy independence will take all of us, working together.

Let's dare to dream.