07 Feb Honoring those who come before you

Honoring those who come before you

So recently I was watching the Netflix documentary Mercury 13 about the 1st woman that signed up to go to the moon. They weren’t allowed to go in the end, even though they passed all the tests that the men had, it didn’t matter.

They got mad and took this to court. They thought that having another famous woman pilot there would help their case. Jacqueline Cochran was the first woman to fly faster than the speed of sound and, at the time of her death in 1980, she held more speed, altitude, and distance records than any other male or female pilot in aviation history. The only reason she got to do any of this was because her husband was building fighter jets for our country, for the war.

When she was asked in court if she thought that these women should be sent to space, she said she didn’t believe so and because of her testimony President Johnson at the time put his foot down and said there would be no more women in the space program.

Years later we got our 1st woman astronaut that was going into space.
Eileen Marie Collins was a former flight instructor and test pilot, Collins was picked to be the first woman to pilot the Space Shuttle and the first to command a Space Shuttle mission.

She knew what happened to the Mercury 13 and these women were her heroes growing up. And so she invited them to be there for her launching into space for the 1st time. She even called a press conference and gave thanks to them for paving the way before her because if it wasn’t for them she wouldn’t be going into space at that moment.

I literally cried while watching this because my philosophy in life is to lift up other women. The fact that Jacqueline Cochran could have lifted them up and made them the 1st woman in space but instead cut them down. Whether it was because of jealousy or insecurity or just wanting to feel that she was the 1st woman that was allowed to fly fighter jets, who knows? All I know is that she didn’t lift up these women to help them when she could have, which is sad. There are many women like that but I’m happy to say that more women, at least the ones that I know, want other women to succeed.

I have been surrounded by strong women my whole life, women that have fought for other women’s rights and believed in equality. So I have to carry on that legacy to also empower women because only when we empower each other, do we all become stronger.

So today my friends remember there is room for millions of brightly lit stars out there. We must all lift, encourage and empower one another to become the brightest.
“Be the change you want to see”
@TreadmillTreats