Artemis II Was A Proud American Moment, Until ESPN Made It About Race

I've lived in Florida for basically my entire life, so watching Wednesday's Artemis II rocket launch was nothing new. I've seen it a million times over my 33 years, all from my backyard. 

Frankly, it's one of the perks of living in Florida. One of the many. 

But still, there was something different about this one. Yes, it was obviously different because there were humans aboard the spacecraft, which we used to do a lot back in the day but haven't done in years for some reason. 

Growing up, we used to send folks to space all the time. Yesterday, I watched us doing it was my kid for the first time in her life. 

Made me feel old. Made me feel proud. God, I love this country. Nothing unifies us like a good, solid space mission to the moon. Why have we waited 50 years to do this? No clue. Seems silly. But, that's not the point of this. 

The point, unfortunately, is to rip ESPN for predictably making the whole thing about … race! That's right. Their bread and butter. 

"Oh, they're sending a BLACK man to the moon?! All hands on deck, now!"

Can Victor Glover pilot Artemis II, or not? That's all I care about

Nothing fires up the libs in Bristol quite like seeing a black person "do something for the first time." It's like Christmas morning for them. That, and watching a dude pretend to be a female and pummel actual females in a sporting event. 

They LOVE those two things. 

Such a predictable post from ESPN. I didn't even know Victor Glover was black before yesterday. I was reading some sort of NASA press release last week, and saw he was a former D-1 athlete and thought, "Cool, this dude sounds like he can pilot a rocket ship, I think we're in good shape." 

Of course, when I saw the astronauts yesterday for the first time, I knew someone would jump all over this. ESPN is always the leader in the clubhouse on these things. 

USA Today is second. The Athletic is third. 

They're all woke in their own, special ways, but you'd be hard-pressed to beat ESPN to the punch in this case. 

Good to see America fighting back in the comments, by the way. Who cares if Victor Glover is black? Can the dude pilot a rocket, or not? Stop using him as a prop. Stop acting like his skin color is some sort of weird handicap on his life, and he's made this huge breakthrough. 

He's a former D-I athlete who was a DAWG on the Cal Poly football team and wrestling team, and now he's bringing us back to the moon for the first time in decades. 

He's an engineering major, so he's smart as hell. 

He was a lockdown cornerback, so he's got all his bases covered. 

He was a wrestler, so he knows how to get out of messy spots. He knows how to work the problem. 

That's who I want piloting my spacecraft. I don't care if he's black, white, purple or identifies as a cat. 

Although, preferably, not that last one. 

Congrats to Victor Glover for being the absolute best man for the mission. And, congrats to ESPN for, once again, being painfully predictable.