Both Things Can Be True

 In the past week, there were two trips to the very edges of space, not by NASA astronauts, but by non-government employees.  Two of the passengers were billionaires.

Twitter has been flooded with criticism aimed at both of these men.  Their money could be spent saving our planet, feeding children, etc.  Or 90% of the money in the US belongs to 1% of the population.  Or just "Jeff Bezos is evil" (I guess Richard Branson is slightly more likeable).

On the other hand, these trips are paving the way for future commercial space travel, with rockets that can be used more than once.  Industries like mining that are hurting our planet can be moved to space.  It's no longer science fiction that an asteroid, hollowed out, can safely and comfortably hold tens of thousands of people.  And Jeff Bezos gave away $200 million dollars today to two do-gooders to do with what they please.

Both things can be true.  

In today's uber-polarized world, EVERYTHING has to fall on one side or the other; my side or your side.  It's nothing new - the Wright brothers were laughed at when they attempted to fly.  And today, the founder of several airlines is paving the way for commercial space travel.

Billionaires and millionaires have helped to build this country, for better and sometimes worse.  Railroad tycoons of the 19th and 20th century invested in railroads because they recognized the profit that could be made by transporting wares quickly to their destination.  Many of these men were ruthless and would do anything to enrich themselves.  And ordinary people now had the means and ability to travel.  Oranges from California could be experienced for the first time by settlers in North Dakota.

Thomas Edison was ridiculed when he introduced a machine called a kinetoscope.  It took photographs and moved them through a reel so it appeared that the pictures moved.  Only one person at a time could watch the film, but Edison and others recognized the potential of the idea.  So then the projector was invented, so that the moving pictures could be shown to many people at a time.  Today, high-def images are streamed into our living rooms instantly.  

Yes, there is great inequity in our country.  But the people who played by the rules and became billionaires aren't to blame - the rules are.  It's easy to point the finger at Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson as being responsible for the woes of our world.  It's much harder to do the work to change the rules so that the rest of us get a piece of the pie.  

We don't have to be angry about everything.  We were told as children to "reach for the stars".  Today, we're closer than ever.