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Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="John Crichton" data-source="post: 669894" data-attributes="member: 4779">Said it better than I would have.  Bravo, sir.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />This whole thing actually upsets me quite a bit and by upset I mean angry.  I didn't know why until speaking with a friend about it today.  It's combination of what happened on 9-11, the impending US invasion of Iraq and an article I just read (see below).  It all just makes me sick.  The US (heck, I would like to think the world) needs the space program more than ever.  It's always stood for hope and human accomplishment.Then I read an article from a doctor recently returned from a trip to various countries including some stops in the Middle East.  According to this artice most of the other nations of the world either hate or have no respect for the US (in general, please don't take this personally if you are outside the US!).  This upsets me because it's most likely true.  We are on the brink of going to war again over oil which is basically just money.  Makes me sick.Many innocents will die if we invade.  I may not have had a problem with this a few weeks after 9-11 but I do now.  Looks to me as if the US is just itching to go to war.  Now, if there is a real threat I'm all for it but otherwise it seems so wrong.So, when I heard about the Columbia and after thinking about it I can't think of a worse time for a NASA setback like this.   This may sound cheesy, but I keep thinking back to a review I recently read by Roger Ebert about the Apollo 13 mission (and corresponding movie)- "It's about men trained to do a job, and doing a better one than anyone could have imagined. The buried message is: When we dialed down the space program, we lost something crucial to our vision. When I was a kid, they used to predict that by the year 2000, you'd be able to go to the moon. Nobody ever thought to predict that you'd be able to, but nobody would bother."I think the world needs the space program more than ever these days and would like to thank Ryan again for his well-worded and heartfelt letter & post.  It has made my day just a bit better.</blockquote>

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