Meanwhile, on what would seem to be from the outside, little more than a whim, companies like Kellogg announce they are closing down their local logistics (they call it distribution) operations and laying off 250 workers right here in Greensboro.
And let's never allow them to forget that the $120 Million invested in Fed-Ex resulted in a net gain of zero new workers.
Meanwhile, over at UNCG, Dr. John Z. Kiss, dean of UNCG’s College of Arts and Sciences
is aiming for the Moon, Mars, and beyond having worked closely with NASA (You know, the outer space guys) for 30 years. From UNCG NOW: UNCG professor leads NASA experiment:
“Plants are integral as we plan for long-term manned space missions and the development of colonies on the Moon and Mars – bringing all food and supplies necessary for a long-term mission or for colonization is not tenable,” said Kiss, who also serves as a professor of biology. “To make human habitation of other worlds a possibility, we need to be able to grow crops in greenhouses in space. If astronauts can grow their own food, then we have created a new paradigm for space travel and habitation.”
But let's not forget the things we learn from space travel aren't just about space travel. Space travel has brought us:
better water purification,
ultrasound,
Laser surgery to correct eyesight,
new drugs,
robots that can do surgeries so delicate that human surgeons can't do them
Monitoring water quality from space
Monitoring natural disasters from space
Improving indoor air quality
magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
advances in smoke detection
advances in STEM technology... and hundreds, perhaps thousands more listed at NASA Spinoff.
But is Greensboro investing in space and looking into the future? Is Greensboro a leader? No, we're still inventing trucks and airplanes.
You don't grow and become a leader by doing what has already been done. Greensboro has the talent and expertise in people like Dr John Z Kiss and hundreds, if not thousands of others across our city.
What we lack is leadership that knows their asses from a Saturn rocket. Let's send all our local politicians packing. Every last one of them.
