Godspeed, Sally...

I was grieved to read about the passing of Sally Ride, first American woman to go into Space.  I didn't even know she was ill.

I wanted to be Sally so bad when I was a kid.  I  used to make off with Dad's binoculars at night and sit in my room with the lights off, and stare at the moon.  I couldn't decide if I wanted to be an astronaut or an astronomer.  My Science grades improved.  I used to get excited when Nova came on on PBS.  I adored Jack Horkheimer and his "keep reaching for the stars" bit.

Sally's death leaves us bereft and seems to mark the end of an era of American pride and patriotism.

Where did it go?  When did we stop feeling invincible and start feeling scared all the time?  I don't think it was 9/11 that was totally responsible, either.  It's been coming on for a long time.

When Pearl Harbor got hammered, did we sit around and cry?  Hell no.  We got up and kicked some butt.  We were bound and determined to rise above the attack, above the Axis powers, above the war.  And we did.  Like crazy.

We believed in ourselves and in our country and in each other.  Success was inevitable, we thought.  We didn't have some sort of strange, misguided shame of being #1.  We were damn good and we knew it.  We reveled in it.

We taught our kids that they could reach for the stars.  They could do it!  We taught them that obstacles and challenges were good for them.  You fell down?  Bummer.  Put some Neosporin and a band-aid on, get up and try again.  Repeat if necessary.

And Sally?  The first American woman to go into Space?  Long before the rise of "GIRL POWER", she taught us (girls, especially) that it was cool to do your Math and Science homework.  She taught us that it was cool to be smart, to dream.  She showed us that we could do anything, and do it with class, poise, and elegance.  Sally was an accurate and fabulous representation of American pride, talent, know-how, dreams, and determination.  It was an exciting time.

What do we have now?  So many people seem ashamed of America, of American success.  We have had over 10 years of international turmoil, a wretched economy, a sub-par educational system, and politicians who don't do what we hired them to do.  Instead, they sit around in nauseating luxury, bitching at one another about the most trivial shit.  The only thing they've succeeded in doing is dividing us bitterly and screwing us over.

But, so what?  It's happened before.  It was called The Great Depression.  We got out of it.  As a nation, we've fought how many wars?  We ended up o.k.  What's going on now in our beautiful land, does not have to destroy us.  We're nuts if we let it.  We've pried our tails out of tighter cracks than this one and we can do it again.  It's o.k. if America is successful.  It's o.k. if we're top of the heap.  This is why our forebearers fought their asses off from 1775-1783, and again in 1812, 1861-65, 1917, 1941-45, etc.  They fought because they knew there was something worth fighting for.  They were glad to do it.  They were proud to contribute.

Sally was born just after WWII, when this kind of optimism and pride was at its zenith.  And she shared it with us.

Come on, people!  Let's quit whining, get off our duffs and show Sally and our forebearers that their hard work and dreaming wasn't in vain.  We owe them that.

God bless you, Sally.  And thank you so much.  For everything.