FACE OUR FEARS: Isolating America does not make us great again.
The Trump administration plans to cut 2,145 senior-ranking NASA employees with specialized skills or management responsibilities, according to documents obtained by Politico.
All these employees are senior-level government ranks, targeting experts with decades of experience in the space agency, including those working on core mission areas, like science or human space flight.
“You’re losing the managerial and core technical expertise of the agency,” Casey Dreier, chief of space policy at The Planetary Society, told Politico. “What’s the strategy and what do we hope to achieve here?”
Take a guess. The billionaires who bought this election want to capitalize and monetize space travel for themselves. Look at Bezos’ recent PR stunt sending his fiancé, Lauren Sanchez, as well pop star Katy Perry (among others) for their ten-minute trip 62-miles above Earth so they could experience a photo shoot “in space.”
The end game is to privatize it all so they can lay claim to things that never will and never should “belong” to one person. It’s abhorrent and diabolical, but here we are.
In fact, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland is expected to see the largest staff reduction, with 607 positions cut. The Johnson Space Center in Texas will lose 366 employees, while Florida’s Kennedy Space Center will see 311 cuts.
At NASA headquarters in Washington, 307 staff will be affected. Meanwhile, the Langley Research Center in Virginia will lose 281 positions, the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama will cut 279 roles, and the Glenn Research Center in Cleveland will lose 191 staff.
REALITY CHECK: This is an all-out assault on the American space program.
And I know, in times like these, you might be thinking: “Natalie, why focus on this when everything much more immediate is on fire?”
Because all of this is connected.
Isolation from space travel and exploration. Isolation through the imminent sale of TikTok to an American-backed company to further control the flow of information. Isolation by deportation of immigrants. Isolation by preventing people from crossing state lines in order to receive abortion care.
Isolation breeds contempt for the other. It creates suspicion and makes us more likely to turn on our neighbors and our families. It creates a situation where more power can be consolidated. It demands obedience and silence.
In a 1962 speech at Rice University, President John F. Kennedy boldly pledged to a cheering crowd of 40,000 people that American astronauts would land on the moon by decade’s end even thought much of the necessary technology did not yet exist. That didn’t stop him from dreaming and from believing in the very best of us to make it possible.
“If this capsule history of our progress teaches us anything, it is that man and his quest for knowledge and progress is determined and cannot be deterred. The exploration of space will go ahead, whether we join in it or not. And it is one of the great adventures of all time. And no nation which expects to be the leader of other nations can expect to stay behind in this race for space.
For the eyes of the world now look into space, to the moon, and to the planets beyond. And we have vowed that we shall not see it governed by a hostile flag of conquest, but by a banner of freedom and peace. We have vowed that we shall not see space filled with weapons of mass destruction, but with instruments of knowledge and understanding.”
To dream of traveling through outer space is to believe in something bigger than yourself — something that does not belong to any one of us and yet to all of us. It’s to plant a seed to grow a tree whose shade you may never sit under. It demands that we ask, “What is possible?”
This question rings hollow today as Trump torpedoes the American dream, disrespects the Dreamers, and denies us the ability to work together on exciting projects that bring people together regardless of their gender, age, sexual orientation, race, immigration status or class.
Isolation is the key to unlocking the next level of the Trump regime’s desire to create a fascist state where we live in fear of each other and those who oppress us.
But the American spirit is nothing if not obstinate and rebellious in nature. This country can do great things if we learn to work together towards societal goals that benefit all of us. Only when we look at one another in the eye and say, “As Americans, we are in this together, to fight for our right to live fully and freely, pursue our happiness and dream of a better tomorrow for those we may never meet,” then we can start to recognize and see ourselves in one another.
And in that reflection, we will know that our power lies in solidarity with one another and not in isolation from one another.
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Until next time, take care of yourselves and each other.
In solidarity,
Natalie
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