First African-American Astronaut for Space Station Blasting Off Next Year

I know - its strange. But sadly, a ton of American parents are still very much single minded. I remember when my son was born, I had such wild fantasy hopes. "Great - I'll teach him to build models, play guitar, etc." And he grew up wanting nothing to do with those things. My two daughters on the other hand, are exactly like me. They build models, collect bank notes, play guitar, tinker with computers, etc. And the *RESISTANCE* that I got from fellow dads and moms was borderline disgusting. "Girls shouldn't be thinking too much - they need to play with dolls, etc." I'm not making this up sadly.

My son has since gravitated heavily towards guitar in his later life and even forced himself to play left-handed so that he can steal dad's guitars... He picked that up from his sisters who likewise play lefty. Now thats not to say that my girls weren't raised as girls, but if they didn't have a doll in their hand, some parent would start complaining. The girls eventually learned to swear at people. My baby, had no boyfriends all through high school, but went to prom every year. So that fact that she wasn't in a clique didn't bother her. Or the boys! But I did notice that at science fair, all of the boys were expected to place high and there would be anger when my "girl" swept the county and came in third in the state.

I was also confused until I reread "Space Station" which is a topic I knew little about.

Kennedy Space Center is still very much alive. The fact that we have to rely on other nations to get into space is sad, but hey - what can you do?