Good article Anil. Thanks. I’d like comment about one of your statements as it honestly bothered me a little — not in a bad way, but more in a reflective way. This:

“ While older folks had Apollo, the Space Shuttle was “our” space program, with the earliest tests and launches being among my earliest memories, ...”

I can understand in a way why you wrote that, as I am one of those “older” folks. My equivalent ‘transcendent’ event was the Apollo 11 Moon landing. I was a young teenager and was watching on TV live when Neil Armstrong set foot on the Moon. As soon as he put both feet on the Moon and uttered those immortal words, my best friend Mark and I ran outside looked up the beautiful full Moon, and were simply and literally awe struck by the majesty and magnificence of what human beings had accomplished.

I became a fighter pilot in the US Air Force and even applied to the astronaut program (I was not accepted… But I was able to apply so I’m okay with the outcome. I still have the rejection letter framed and on my office wall. :) )

Sure, I was proud that America accomplished the moon landing, but in America back then, the chauvinism (defn: excessive or prejudiced loyalty or support for one’s own cause, group, or gender) we have today in our soceity regarding pretty much all human being’s petty differences, including age, was not nearly so pronounced. I was raised to respect humanity and all other people — whether they returned that respect was up to them.

My point is, the Space Shuttle was mine too — just as the Apollo program was also yours. The contemporaneous aspects of age or existence when those events occurred are secondary to the aspects of being one as Americans.

The founding of America was the most profound event in human history of the past 1000 years in terms of net positive effects on the human condition and it too belongs to all of us just as much as the US Space Program — yet neither you nor I were there.

But we are here because of it. My comment here is, I guess, a small plea to stop building divisions between People, especially Americans. No offense meant to you, as I do understand where you are coming from. But I want to convey to you that such thoughts were not always a part of the American experience — we used to be much more as one in spite of what many believe and are taught these days.

I wish you the very best in all you do.