Neil deGrasse Tyson believes that the United States has lost the sense of adventure, forward-looking expectation, and appreciation for innovation that was stimulated by President Kennedy’s call for space exploration. He bemoans this loss and is quite willing to recount the many scientific and material benefits that flowed from the activities of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in this regard. Not least among these benefits that Neil highlights was the investment in and emphasis on math and science education in our schools. Like so many of us, deGrasse Tyson, who is named for a French navy officer who fought in the revolutionary war, has a short-sighted view of the past and, therefore, a misinformed view of the future.

As an African American science dilettante myself, I love my astrophysics’ brother’s fame and status as one of the US’s top popularizers of basic science. Neil is replacing such Caucasian notables as Carl Sagan. He, like President Obama, is another First for our community. Like Obama and so many other Firsts, brother Tyson seems to be uncritically surfing on a US public narrative that is filled with untruths, misconceptions, faulty understandings, and missing facts that has been destructive to African Americans and that is bringing mankind to extinction. We only need to look at the current Tea Party efforts across the South to shape school curricula to enshrine Jefferson Davis as a hero, to deny the slave-holding of many of the US Founders, and to tout the accomplishments of unbridled capitalism to see how these lies get implanted in the public narrative.

Tyson must own up to the fact that the US space race was a Cold War policy at its heart. NASA walked hand-in-hand with the military in an effort to out-do the Soviets. Much of what we call science in this country is not basic science; it is military science. Yes, there are spin-offs from military science that have been marginally beneficial for nonmilitary uses but the huge investments are not made with this in mind and the investments come to an end when the military uses for that line of inquiry decline. No one, especially Mr. Tyson, should be blind to the fact that the direct benefits from direct investment in basic exploration and research would far out strip military science in delivering benefits that are general and sustainable!

Neil is, also, wrong if he thinks that it is a loss of the spirit of adventure that is to blame for the decline of the space program or that the decline of the space program heralds a loss of the spirit of adventure. Rather, it is the collapse of the US’s primary heavy military competitor, the Soviet Union, and the over achievement of the military advantage of space technology that is to blame. That military science over-reach resulted in the scientific absurdity of the National Missile Defense or Star Wars program which has faded to invisibility when confronted with the actuality of computer capabilities, ballistic realities, and offensive decoy distribution capabilities. It is not the ancillary nonmilitary benefits that have driven the government investments in this program; it is dishonest to speak of these spin-offs while being silent on the primary motivator.

To tell the truth, the historical spirit of adventurism in the US has always been more related to greed, dominance, and militarism than it has been to basic exploration, basic science, or discovery. Newt Gingrich’s promotion of a moon colony ought to be a wakeup signal to the presence of this dishonesty. Do not forget the military taint to the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the US government’s very first investment in this type of activity? Our investments in innovation have historically been harnessed to a sense of manifest destiny that grows out of assumed supremacy, greed, accumulation, and materialism. And it has always been backed up with violence and militarism. Because Neil deGrasse Tyson seems not to see this, I must tag this good natured man a Buffalo Soldier.

Dr. Tyson seems to be blind to the ‘teachings’ of nature and not cognizant of the underlying motivators lurking behind the major actions in US history. Nature’s ‘teachings’ are more about sustainability than never-ending growth and imperial expansion. Nature’s ‘teachings’ are more about cooperation, adaptation, co-evolution, and symbiosis than they are about the survival of the fittest or dominance. I join with brother Tyson in calling for increased investments in math and science education and basic research exploration; however, I call for such increased investments that stand apart from the un-sustainability of greed and militarism. Being an astrophysicist, who is prominent, should not blunt Neil’s ability to perceive the truths that are found in the life ‘lessons’ of this planet.

My brother Neil and all brothers and sisters should see and speak against the obscured messages that were in Kennedy’s call. I know that Neil is not a historian, nor a rhetorical expert, nor a sociologist; but as an African American with status - as a First – he has an obligation to see and expose the subterranean imperialist, racists, ‘monsters’ that inhabit the US psyche. We all have that as a first rank obligation.

BlackCommentator.com Guest Commentator, Wilson Riles, is a former Oakland, CA City Council Member. Click here to contact Mr. Riles.