This site has moved to robert.williamsonline.us.
Orcinus is the second more liberal site I've seen that criticized Bush for specifically naming Ilan Ramon as an Israeli while neglecting to mention Kalpana Chawla as a Sikh or Indian.
This criticism is indicative of what's great about America, and what liberals miss.
Kalpana Chawla was born in India and was the first woman of Indian ancestry to travel into space. She earned a Ph. D. in aerospace engineering in 1988 and began working for NASA. She was accepted by NASA as an astronaut in 1994.
Her first trip into space was in November 1997. She worked with the 3,000 pound Spartan satellite and attempted to retrieve it with the shuttle's robot arm when it malfunctioned. Later she coordinated a spacewalk by two fellow astronauts to recover the satellite.
There were celebrations in her hometown of Karnal, India when she first went up. And a few sad days ago, the same town mourned her loss.
Ilan Ramon was born in Tel Aviv, Israel. His background includes a distinguished military record. He was a Lt. Colonel in the Israeli Air Force.
So, why is it that Bush specifically mentions Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli astronaut, and almost never singles out Kalpana Chawla? It's simple.
Kalpana Chawla was a United States citizen, as were Rick Husband, William McCool, David Brown, Laurel Clark, and Michael Anderson.
Kalpana Chawla's story demonstrates the reason for America's success. She immigrated to this country in 1982 to study. In her words, ""I contacted the United States Education Foundation and asked them how to come to the United States. They sent a list of colleges that offer aerospace engineering".
She came from a small Indian town. She immigrated to America to study aerospace engineering, earning a Master's and then Ph. D., in just a few years. Then she became an astronaut.
She also assimilated into our country and culture. She went by her initials, "K.C.". She carried a T-shirt from UTA on her first flight.
And she became a citizen. And with that, America promptly forgot everything about her race, religion, ancestry, caste, class, or anything else.
It's no more important to us that she was from India than we care that one of the astronauts was a black man, or that one was a white woman. We don't particularly care that two were evangelical Christians who went to church together, or that one was a Unitarian Universalist.
We are not divided by color, religion, or ancestry. We are Americans.
The crew of the Columbia was four white men, one black man, one white woman, one Jewish man, one Indian woman. Or perhaps one Unitarian, two evangelical Christians, one Jew, one (presumably) Hindu. Or five men and three women.
Or how about, six Americans, one Israeli.