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In America, We Have No Means Of Getting To Our Own Space Station. We Have To Pay The Russians To Put Our People Up There To Send Them Into Space - Rendezvous With The Station And Bring Them Back At The End Of Their Stay, And That To Me Is Just Wrong. We're Supposed To Be The World's Greatest Space-faring Nation, And To Cancel Our Own Means Of Getting There I Thought Was A Mistake, Even Though It Would Save Some Money.

-John Glenn

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In America, We Have

John Glenn

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In America, We Have No Means Of Getting To Our Own Space Station. We Have To Pay The Russians To Put Our People Up There To Send Them Into Space - Rendezvous With The Station And Bring Them Back At The End Of Their Stay, And That To Me Is Just Wrong. We're Supposed To Be The World's Greatest Space-faring Nation, And To Cancel Our Own Means Of Getting There I Thought Was A Mistake, Even Though It Would Save Some Money.

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By Its Very Definition, Civic Responsibility Means Taking A Healthy Role In The Life Of One's Community. That Means That Classroom Lessons Should Be Complemented By Work Outside The Classroom. Service-learning Does Just That, Tying Community Service To Academic Learning.

America Needs The Best Education System In The World. We Have It In Higher Education. We Do Not Have It In General Education For All Of Our People - The K-12 Education. Other Nations Are Far, Far Outdoing The United States In That Area. We Still Have The Lead In Research, But Once Again, Other Nations Are Pouring More Into Research Also. We Still Have A Lead, But To Me It's Just Very, Very Important That We Keep That Lead In Basic Research.

It Was The Time Of The Cold War And So There Were Was A Lot Of Pressure On The - To Get Going And The Russians Were Claiming That They Were - Soviets Were Claiming They Were Ahead Of Us In Technology. And So It Was Against That Backdrop That The Early Space Flights Took Off.

That Whole Day [ Of The Space Flight] Is Very Vividly Impressed On My Memory Because It Was Such A New Experience. We Hadn't Done That Before. And Then I've Recalled It So Often Since Then I Think That It's A - It's Remained Very Vivid Over The Past 50 Years, Seems To Me Like About A Week Or Two Instead Of 50 Years.

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I Suppose The One Quality In An Astronaut More Powerful Than Any Other Is Curiosity. They Have To Get Some Place Nobody's Ever Been.

If We Could Do Something That Enhances The Body's Immune System Here On Earth, It Would Be A Tremendous Step Forward In The Fight Against Disease And Cancer And Other Things.

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I Don't Like The Way The Whole Thing Has Developed. And I Just Hope That We Develop Our Own Transportation System, Both Spacecraft And New Boosters, As Soon As Possible. I Hate To Think That We May Be Out There Seven To Ten Years Out And Dependent On The Russians For Our Journey Into Space.

When Others Kid Me About Being Bald, I Simply Tell Them That The Way I Figure It, The Good Lord Only Gave Men So Many Hormones, And If Others Want To Waste Theirs On Growing Hair, That's Up To Them.

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I Don't Know What You Could Say About A Day In Which You Have Seen Four Beautiful Sunsets.

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Too Many People, When They Get Old, Think That They Have To Live By The Calendar.

To Get Your Name Well Enough Known That You Can Run For A Public Office, Some People Do It By Being Great Lawyers Or Philanthropists Or Business People Or Work Their Way Up The Political Ladder. I Happened To Become Known From A Different Route.

Just Because I'm 77 Doesn't Mean I Don't Have A Dream.

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On K-12 Education America Has Gone Down, Down, Down Compared To The Other Nations. It Doesn't Mean That We Have Gotten Dumber. It Just Means That We Have Not Advanced As Fast In Those Areas As Other Nations Have Done, And We're Way Down Right Now.

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Most Of Our Competitor Nations Around The World Have A National Education System And America Is The Only Major Nation In The World That Operates Off Of Local School Boards. They Receive Very Little Direction From State Boards Of Education Or From The Nation. So Local School Boards Direct Basically What Happens And Too Often They're Not Willing To Track Or To Do The Supervision Of The Education System That Will Make It World Competitive.

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