THE KEY TO SUCCESS IS EDUCATION

Without their education, these three phenomenal ladies would have been, as the world viewed blacks at the time, just three average black girls who would have gone totally unnoticed in life. Instead, through their educations, they all became forces of nature and changed the world they lived in and for decades to come. They were true pioneers.

Wikipedia

Hidden Figures is a 2016 American biographical drama film directed by Theodore Melfi and written by Melfi and Allison Schroeder, based on the non-fiction book of the same name by Margot Lee Shetterly about black female mathematicians who worked at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) during the Space Race. The film stars Taraji P. Henson as Katherine Johnson, a mathematician who calculated flight trajectories for Project Mercury and other missions.

The other night when I watched this movie. Throughout the movie, I could not help but feel compassion for them, for the struggles that they had to endure, through no fault of their own, only because they were, black first and second because they were females attempting to make it in a man’s world.

Watching the movie, I felt the pain and humiliation these ladies were subjected to, all because of the color of their skin and the general conscience at that time, women were not considered equals to men in many areas, especially the business world.

There have been many improvements and advancements in the race relations and gender areas since then, but needless to say, there still is a very large mountain to climb for total equality.

During the movie, most of those prejudices of intelligence and equality between the sexes were dispelled or proven wrong, only because of the toughness, tenacity of these ladies not to capitulate.

It turned out, the three ladies were considerably more intelligent than the males they worked with. They solved some of the very complex conditions and calculations involving the plagued space exploration mission that had the men stumped.

I was absolutely captivated by the quality of the movie and the genius of these outstanding women. In my opinion, it was one of the best movies in that genre that I have ever seen.

It is so unfortunate that for generations our government has dropped the ball on EDUCATION; which is the ONLY key and avenue to success.

My definition of education is not; how much 10 x 10 =. It is a complete compilation of what it takes for people to strive for, in order to lead a good, healthy, full and productive lives.

If the powers to be in Washington, DC would by some miracle join/combine forces, suddenly awake from decades of mindless sleeping they are in and redirect their energies to EDUCATION instead of constantly putting their own agendas before the real pressing issues, that would be the turning point to a successful, crime reduction, higher intellectual levels for masses and the key to success in this country.

The politicians are so fixated on destroying each other, they have little time for the necessities. Rolling Boulders are reminiscent of a cat on a linoleum floor, running 100 miles an hour and going nowhere.

I truly believe that the majority of people who hold public are greedy, have substandard intelligence, only out there to ingratiate themselves and their cronies and have little to no concern for the American public. If that was not the case; why in the name of common-sense would they continually do the idiotic things they do?

We can see by their approval ratings that are at a staggering low of 11% that a fix is in order. Those numbers in corporate America would have these parasites out the door before lunchtime.

Educating and setting proper examples for our kids in the proper fashion should be the absolute 1^st thing on the politicians’ agenda. EDUCATION is the answer to all of our problems. Only uneducated people do the ridiculous things I see them doing.

We have multiple hurdles to jump IF this enormous undertaking was ever to get off the ground.

Over the decades, because of the abuse of government subsidies, many of the people in this country have become lethargic zombies. If some of them were given a job, they absolutely would refuse it.

How is it possible that a person in the US of A can make more on social programs then if they worked. Where is the incentive for them to get a job?? There is NONE.

If we are ever going to break this deplorable cycle, it must be mandatory that the ONLY people who are eligible to collect government hand-outs are completely unable to survive because of physical or mental impairments.

Let us face the cold hard facts. The education of any child should begin at home. Bend the trees while they are young. BUT; how can anyone educate another person and direct them down the right road to success if they have a twisted concept of how civilization is supposed to function?? It is impossible.

The leaders of the USA have to bite the bullet and start yesterday on a complete reformation of educating our kids. If we started this very day, it would take at least 5 – 6 generations to get our society back to a respectable level.

There are so many people out there that assume what our government is doing for the welfare recipients is doing them a favor by aiding and abetting them. It is just the opposite. By their actions, this country has produced millions of Frankenstein/zombies that are now chopping up their creators.

Just like the ultra-permissive parents. Do they really think they are doing their brats a favor by spoiling them? Just the opposite. They are destroying them.

There are 1,000’s of examples. The Affluenza Kid is the best example I come up with.

Ethan Couch, AKA, The Affluenza Kid, was so spoiled, financially supported and enabled by his ignorant parents, he went totally out of control. During one of his out of control escapades, he killed four people while driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs. At 16 years old, his parents bought him his own mansion he lived alone; constantly having booze and drug parties, all knowingly sanctioned by his parents.

EDUCATION of the masses is the key to turning around all of the deficits that plague this country and world. Sad to say, I don’t see this happening. We have gone too far past the point of no return to recover.

IFFF and this is a gigantic IFFF; we had the leaders of the country pulling in the same direction, then and only then would there may be a chance of survival. As we know, that is not the case. If it were not for their ignorance, greed, narcissism, dishonesty and blatant disregard for the citizens of this country, we may have had a chance.

If any of the political fools that run this country are reading this; EDUCATION is the ONLY key to survival.

Don’t take my word for it; let these three exceptional ladies tell the true tale of success as a result of them being educated.

Mary Jackson (1921-2005)

Jackson hailed from Hampton, Virginia. She graduated with high marks from high school and received a bachelor of science degree from the Hampton Institute in Mathematics and Physical Science, according to a biography posted on NASA’s website. She began her career as a schoolteacher, and took on several other jobs before joining NACA.

As a computer with the all-black West Area Computing section, she was involved with wind tunnels and flight experiments. Her job was to extract the relevant data from experiments and flight tests. She also tried to help other women advance in their career, according to the biography, by advising them on what educational opportunities to pursue.

“She discovered that occasionally it was something as simple as a lack of a couple of courses, or perhaps the location of the individual, or perhaps the assignments given them, and of course, the ever present glass ceiling that most women seemed to encounter,” stated the biography.

After 30 years with NACA and NASA (at which point she was an engineer), Jackson decided to become an equal opportunity specialist to help women and minorities. Although described as a behind-the-scenes sort of worker, she helped many people get promoted or become supervisors. She retired from NASA in 1985.

Katherine Johnson did trajectory analysis for Alan Shepard’s mission in 1961 and John Glenn’s mission in 1962.

Credit: NASA

Katherine Johnson (born 1918)

Johnson showed early brilliance in West Virginia schools by being promoted several years ahead of her age, according to NASA. She attended a high school on the campus of West Virginia State College by age 13, and began attending the college at age 18. After graduating with highest honors, she started work as a schoolteacher in 1937.

Two years later, when the college chose to integrate its graduate schools, Johnson and two male students were offered spots. She quickly enrolled, but left to have children. In 1953, when she was back in the workforce, Johnson joined the West Area Computing section at Langley.

She began her career working with data from flight tests, but her life quickly changed after the Soviet Union launched the first satellite in 1957. For example, some of her math equations were used in a lecture series compendium called Notes on Space Technology. These lectures were given by engineers that later formed the Space Task Group, NACA’s section on space travel.

For the Mercury missions, Johnson did trajectory analysis for Shepard’s Freedom 7 mission in 1961, and (at John Glenn’s request) did the same job for his orbital mission in 1962. Despite Glenn’s trajectory being planned by computers, Glenn reportedly wanted Johnson herself to run through the equations to make sure they were safe.

“When asked to name her greatest contribution to space exploration, Katherine Johnson talks about the calculations that helped synch Project Apollo’s Lunar Lander with the moon-orbiting Command and Service Module,” NASA wrote. “She also worked on the space shuttle and the Earth Resources Satellite, and authored or coauthored 26 research reports.”

Johnson retired from NASA In 1986. At age 97, in 2015, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States.

Dorothy Vaughan became the first black supervisor at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), a precursor of NASA, in 1949.

Credit: NASA

Dorothy Vaughan (1910-2008)

Vaughan joined the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory in 1943 after beginning her career as a math teacher in Farmville, Virginia. Her job during World War II was a temporary position, but (in part thanks to a new executive order prohibiting discrimination in the defense industry) she was hired on permanently because the laboratory had a wealth of data to process.

Still, the law required that she and her black colleagues needed to work separately from white female computers, and the first supervisors were white. Vaughan became the first black NACA supervisor in 1949 and made sure that her employees received promotions or pay raises if merited.

Her segregation was ended in 1958 when NACA became NASA, at which point NASA created an analysis and computation division. Vaughan was an expert programmer in FORTRAN, a prominent computer language of the day, and also contributed to a satellite-launching rocket called Scout (Solid Controlled Orbital Utility Test). She retired from NASA in 1971.

Very sad to say; when all was said and done, the three ladies did not receive the recognition they deserved for their contribution to the space program.

If our society would have been EDUCATED properly, these ladies would have been national heroes.

I can not say enough as to how I admired them for their intelligence and willingness to change the system.

The ignorance of some of the white fools they had to work with and what the ladies had to endure, was nothing short of a perverted example of the mentality of what UNEDUCATED white trash was back then and still exists in some circles today.

Unfortunately, the slate ignorance has not been wiped clean yet. It is up to our government’s leaders and then a concerted effort by all the citizens of this country to make sure its history does not continue in the same pathetic direction.

There still exists a great deal of prejudices on all side of the racial fence that will probably never be eliminated. For no other reason except, if a person truly cared about their kids, grand-kids and their future, they should make sure they are properly educated in all the facets of life and learn to, not necessarily like, but respect people of all races.

Who but uneducated fools would want to see our future generations continue to suffer in the same life-styles we have witnessed throughout much of history?

Intelligent people SHOULD learn from their past mistakes, the mistakes of others and do not have a repeat performance. Only fools will hold their finger in the flame of a candle time after time and burn the hell out of it.

All of my life, my glass has always been 9/10 full, the eternal optimist. BUT; more importantly, I am a realist. If I had to evaluate our government competence and future success, based on the direction it has been going for decades, sad to say, on this topic, my glass would only be 1/10 full.

Learn by their examples.