“Ready to rocket” [July 18, A1], with its jump-page photo of a bunch of rich, white, (mostly) men popping Champagne corks was disturbing. It describes a cloistered, misguided collection of assumptions about reality. The amount of money and resources being poured into this ego-stroking game while our economic forces make it impossible for working-class people to thrive (or even exist, in certain areas), is deeply offensive.
The tacit approval of the waste involved in giving the economic elite a thrill is discouraging. Just because someone is rich enough to do whatever they want doesn’t mean they should. The justification Jeff Bezos gives, that the Blue Origin program advances space exploration to create an “industrial ecosystem in space,” is alarming, since we’re struggling with our poor management of our own ecosystem.
The article shares the front page with two stories describing the massive implications of climate change [“Seattle lacks strategy for responding to a heat wave” and “ ‘No one is safe’: Wealthy nations confront reality of extreme weather”]. If issues like these aren’t enough to make us give up the “glorious adventure” of space tourism for the rich and redirect our priorities toward something truly necessary, meaningful and helpful, then the indifference of the rich and powerful truly spells our doom.
Michael Brann, Seattle