Eggplant,
If I was an alien listening in to our media-emissions, I’m not sure I’d want to contact us in the first place.

I mean, we aren’t really a unified populous due to a zillion petty grievances ranging from ethnic divides, pseudo-science, and “colonial” and class victim-hoods.

After all, what kind of relationship could an imagined, modern “We” forge with an alien race? Other than the entertainment derived from playing one-upmanship with our galactic neighbors in the hopes of scoring benefits from the cosmic relationship for this or that faction of mankind, what could Humanity ever offer to a functional, long-term post-terrestrial amity?

We’ve got a long way to go before we have self-actualized as a primate species, and even longer before we can approach an “other” planet’s derivative space-traveler with the gifts and partnership that true friendship requires.

As to settling Mars. Let’s get to it. I’d rather build a space-highway to Mars, than fund Boston’s next Underground – though many would say, the latter should come first.

To which I say, we’re caught in a morass that we need to get out of. And the competing political scheme that a human Martian colony may provide could serve as just the political foil we need to break out of it.