David Both

I feel very fortunate to have been on stage with President Obama today at his health care town hall meeting here in Raleigh. Way kool!

I had made a request for tickets through the normal channels, but never heard back. They only called those who had actually been selected via a lottery. So I thought I would be spending today working as usual. NOT!

Monday afternoon I got an email from the Raleigh Chamber of Commerce. I joined early this year after getting laid off and starting up my own company, Millennium Technology Consulting LLC. Needless to say I called the Chamber as soon as I read the email. They needed to send my information to the White House and told me I could pick up my ticket on Tuesday if all went well. Tuesday morning I got a call letting me know I could pick up my tickets which I did almost immediately.

I went down early and parked at Cameron Village then walked to Broughton High School where the event was held. After waiting for a while outside, we went through security and hung out some more inside. There were about 60 other small business entrepreneurs there and we just hung out until they let us up onto the stage. Security checked our names off the list as we went up. Then we sat around for another hour or so until the program started.

It was so cool being up on stage with President.  I was very fortunate to be able to shake his hand twice; once at the beginning and again at the end.

Of course you can see or read about his health care message, but here is the gist of it in an email I received from the White House a little earlier today. If you care about health insurance and what it means to all of us, please read this message and take action as suggested at the end of his message. I have already visited in person with Brad Miller, our Congressperson, and have already and will continue to call our U.S. Senators, Hagan and Burr. This is important. Please take action now!

If you’re like most Americans, there’s nothing more important to you about health care than peace of mind.

Given the status quo, that’s understandable. The current system often denies insurance due to pre-existing conditions, charges steep out-of-pocket fees – and sometimes isn’t there at all if you become seriously ill.

It’s time to fix our unsustainable insurance system and create a new foundation for health care security. That means guaranteeing your health care security and stability with eight basic consumer protections:

• No discrimination for pre-existing conditions
• No exorbitant out-of-pocket expenses, deductibles or co-pays
• No cost-sharing for preventive care
• No dropping of coverage if you become seriously ill
• No gender discrimination
• No annual or lifetime caps on coverage
• Extended coverage for young adults
• Guaranteed insurance renewal so long as premiums are paid

Learn more about these consumer protections at Whitehouse.gov.
Over the next month there is going to be an avalanche of misinformation and scare tactics from those seeking to perpetuate the status quo. But we know the cost of doing nothing is too high. Health care costs will double over the next decade, millions more will become uninsured, and state and local governments will go bankrupt.

It’s time to act and reform health insurance, drive down costs and guarantee the health care security and stability of every American family. You can help by putting these core principles of reform in the hands of your friends, your family, and the rest of your social network.

Thank you,
Barack Obama

This makes me feel old. Today, July 20, 2009 is the 40th, yes, the fortieth anniversary of Apollo 11 and the first landing on the moon by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, while Michael Collins held down the fort in orbit around the moon.

What an amazing day that was. I was fascinated by the space program then and I still am today. I watched almost constantly during each flight leading up to the big one and I remember the excitement everyone felt as the Apollo 11 flight progressed towards the climax of the landing. It was all that many of us could talk about.

On the evening of the landing I was so excited that I woke my then 2 week old son, Christopher, and held him up in front of the TV with its grainy, black and white images from the surface of the moon and told him that one day he could tell people he saw men walk on the moon for the first time. I know he does not remember but that is not his fault.

I remember Walter Cronkite, who died this last Friday, just three days short of this anniversary, and his child-like wonder at this amazing feat; his speechlessness when the landing occurred. We loved Uncle Walter and trusted him. Rest in Peace.

Those were heady days for the U.S. space program and for many around the world. It was an exhilarating and promising time with new accomplishments and discoveries almost every day.

Most of the electronic devices we use today are based upon technologies developed, adapted or perfected for the space program. The impact of the space technology on our lives on earth is incalculable. Despite the cold war and the rising conflict in Vietnam it was the peacetime program that drove our technology and the economy forward as much or more than any wartime program but without the terrible human and economic disasters of war itself.

I hope that we earth people truly have the desire, the drive and the spirit to move back into space beyond the near-earth environment in which the International Space Station resides and go to the planets and back to the moon. “We came in peace for all mankind.”