BTRTN: Space, Race, and Sheltering in Place... One Tiny Step Forward, Two Horrifying Steps Back
Born To Run The Numbers finds little reason to celebrate a rocket launch in a week of disgrace in America:
http://www.borntorunthenumbers.com/2020/06/btrtn-space-race-and-sheltering-in.html
Excerpts: "The launching of two astronauts into space for the purpose of achieving rendezvous and docking with a craft already in earth orbit is something that the United States actually achieved on March 16, 1966...Forgive me if I am not blown away by SpaceX, particularly as it occurred in a week in which America’s decline was being demonstrated far more profoundly than its advances..."
"56 years later, a white cop jammed his knee onto the neck of a helpless African American man for nine minutes, killing him while creating the perfect metaphor for a nation that cruelly holds down and subjugates its minorities. By my count in this past decade, our police have killed more African Americans as they lie helplessly gasping 'I can’t breathe' than NASA has launched manned rockets...
"Columbia University recently released a study that found that 54,000 of the deaths from the coronavirus would have been avoided had the Federal government implementing social distancing protocols two weeks earlier. To be crystal clear: 54,000 people died because Donald Trump was more concerned about his re-election than about the science of the virus and the health of the American people. It is time to start calling the United States COVID-19 death toll for what it is: genocide at the hands of Donald Trump...
"In his final addressas President, Barack Obama reflected on the bumpy path of American history with the following words: “Yes, our progress has been uneven. The work of democracy has always been hard. It has been contentious. Sometimes it has been bloody. For every two steps forward, it often feels we take one step back.” In his own deft, understated way, Obama was sending a signal to fight for change. While he had served two terms in office – two steps forward – the impending presidency of Donald Trump was certain to be a dark period of retreat, but that the damage could be limited if Trump were to serve only one term … 'one step back.'”
