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Sally Ride Takes Her Final Flight
fructose writes "Sally Ride, America's first woman in space died today at age 61. She succumbed to pancreatic cancer according to her office in San Diego. Here's to wishing her a safe trip on her final journey."
the US has never been more divided.
you have the jesusland guys (aka, modern republicans or teabaggers) who really want to take us down the 'we are a christian nation!' path. for the most part, they are inhabitants of flyover states, rural areas and the south.
then, you have thinking people, which, admittedly, there are less and less to be found. these people are strongly opposed to the 'faith based' bullshit.
problem is: the mouth breathers and fundies are the more vocal and so it *seems* like they are what the US is about.
I assure you, many of us find the 'US of jesusland' to be exactly the opposite of what this country was supposed to be about.
the republicans keep this crap going since they are now in bed with 'big religion' and its too late for them to back out of that. they are 'with them' now and they have a large base they can manipulate. they are not going to give that up anytime soon!
but again, realize that the 'moral majority' is neither (to use an old 80's era phrase).
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"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
People do not want to admit that death==nonexistence so they make-up imaginary "trips" to some other place (heaven, hell, Elysian Fields, space, whatever). In reality Sally Ride's personality dissolved into nothingness at the moment her brain's neurons broke connection with one another when they were deprived of oxygen.
I was where you're at once. 20 years ago, my friend 'passed' from stomach cancer at age 35, young. The docs gave him 2 months, he lasted 7, we took him to Atlantic City for his dying wish. He was home to die thanks to the local hospice, and I was blessed to be able to be there, to help him and his wife any way I could. A lot of weird unexplainable shit happened in that room. All I can say is, keep an open mind about things, young man. There's more going on in this life than what we can see, that is my experience. Think what you will, I know what I know, and those 7 months spent helping out permanently changed my thinking, and the direction of my life, for the better. One last thing. Young Sir, after you die, get ready for a surprise!