Hey McFarland! Pastor Wayne here!
Today is May 25, 2022. Charlene and I are taking advantage of a last minute opportunity to take a few vacation days in Cocoa Beach, Florida thanks to some dear friends. It has been a good get-away. The weather is perfect with highs around 90 and lows in the mid 70’s with winds out of the East at 15-20 mph.
This afternoon, we had the opportunity to watch a SpaceX launch of a Falcon 9 rocket with a cargo of multiple satellites designated as Transporter 5. Lifting off a few minutes later than anticipated following a hold to ensure that all of the pre-launch checks of the 50+ satellites were complete, the launch was flawless as we watched it from the Kennedy Point Park in Titusville. About 8 minutes after launch, we watched as the first stage of the Falcon 9 performed a perfect, controlled, return to a recovery point near the launch site. It made this space geek’s heart glad. The closest I have been to a launch prior to this was as a 9 year old kid in 1969, we visited and toured the Kennedy Space Center as Apollo 11 was being transported from the Vehicle Assembly Building to the launch pad 39A in preparation for the first flight to put mankind on the moon. As we watched the launch, a person next to us said that she had been living in the area for 40 years and it never gets old watching us reach for the stars.
Seeing us reach for our potential is tempered by the pain and sorrow that we feel for the families in Texas who have lost children or loved ones to the latest abomination of school shootings. Now, I know that some of you consider me to be liberal, and I will gladly claim that designation, but under what proposition do we excuse the mass murder of elementary school students? Yes, there is evil in place here and there were “good guys with a gun” who were initially useless in preventing this massacre of innocents.
Pardon me, but when in the hell are we going to shout that enough is enough? Don’t give me the BS about the 2nd Amendment right because your right to own a gun doesn’t override my right to be safe in my property, regardless of what the NRA says. The United States is the only country in the civilized world with this level of idiocy. We CAN do something about this. The question is will we?
See you on Sunday.
Pastor Wayne
