Them and Us
Space has fascinated me since I sat in an elementary school desk and listened to updates broadcast across the classroom speakers on John Glenn’s orbit around the earth in 1961. Jan and I recently re-watched “The Right Stuff” and thoroughly enjoyed it. We were told as kids by Gene Roddenberry “Space – The Final Frontier!” The proliferation of the Star Wars saga, which has grown so every Christmas Day our family watches a new installment, has further cemented space in our psyche.
Yesterday, Jan had the news on hoping to see some of the SpaceX launch. SpaceX is a historic endeavor, a private enterprise launch to reach out to the final frontier. It has also been the only game in town because NASA hasn’t been doing much lately to make the 5 o’clock news.
Jan never did get to see the launch because coverage of the protests downtown pushed SpaceX to a tiny blurb she missed. Achievements of any kind are being obscured by the news of the day, whether it be 24/7 Covid coverage or racism on display.
As a former journalist I understand the sad fact: "If it bleeds, it leads".
The 5 o’clock news earlier this week was the first time I saw the policeman sitting there with his hands in his pockets and knee on the neck of an already handcuffed George Floyd. I was outraged and am again every time I see it. The policeman looked so smug and the nonchalant hand in the pocket made me as angry as the knee.
I believe what policemen do on a daily basis make them heroes. I hold my heroes to a higher standard than I saw in Minneapolis last week or Nashville a couple of years back. I believe most live up to the standard and make our communities places to safely live and work. For those rogues who dishonor their badge, we have a legal system for which they should answer like anyone else.
I understand and share the outrage. What I cannot accept and understand is the rage. I fully recognize my capacity to understand is limited by never being singled out for my race by law enforcement. “Driving while White” is not a fact of American life. I may not have a good frame of reference.
I am a member of a minority, Cherokee Indians, though my percentage isn’t enough to be physically evident in my generation. In my life, I have always utilized the Indian saying: “to understand a man, you have to walk a mile in his moccasins”.
I think we all need to walk in the other man’s moccasins these days, though I probably would not make a mile in the footsteps of those who resort to violence, destruction and intimidation. Those destroying businesses in cities around America in the last few days forfeited the high ground in the debate George Floyd’s death could have given them. Their actions allowed some a convenient excuse to rationalize, providing them an off ramp to wiggle off the hook of racism. They obscured the martyrdom.
I believe my freedom only extends as far as the next person’s nose. That has heightened significance in this day of the pandemic. Somehow, during quarantine we have migrated from “we’re all in this together” to “mask or no mask”. How quickly we got to “them and us”. I believe those people who showed up at the Michigan state house with guns to support their protest to force reopening are no different than those who threw Molotov cocktails last night. Intimidation is a hair split from violence. Neither has a place in a Christian or any other type society.
This gets me back to space.
Humankind has always been racist. The story of our race – the human one – is a story of “Us” looking to find a “Them” to either look down upon or outright hate. There are examples in the Bible and as recent as any war we've fought.
What happens when we get to space?
We may find a whole lot of “them” out there, more different than just the color of our skin or shape of our eyes. Have you seen some of the bar scenes in Star Wars or Star Trek? We may end up being “them” for beings a whole lot more powerful.
I suggest we solve this “them and us” problem before we venture into space. “Them and Us” is baggage we don’t need on SpaceX or any other vessel that ventures forth where no man or woman or earthly race has ever been.
