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DR MICHAEL H WONG
ASSOCIATE RESEARCHER

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
SPACE SCIENCES LABORATORY
BERKELEY CA 94720-5070

510/224-3411 (voice)
510/788-6083 (fax)

Space Science is for Everyone: An Open Letter.
Fri 2025-02-14 12:15  
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NASA’s core values, shown in the Central Campus lobby at Kennedy Space Center in 2020 following the addition of a fifth core value, inclusion, by then NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. [NASA/KSC]

Lately I have been grasping at things to hold onto, to maintain my spirits and my belief in progressing as individuals, as a community of researchers, as a nation, and as a species. Here are the top three things I'm holding onto at the moment:

  • The open letter Space Science is for Everyone. Its growing list of signers would take a long time to read, but I get a nice boost by just picking a random section, invariably recognizing many of the names, and mentally giving thanks and relishing the spirit of community that is so frightening to fascist forces. The support of my colleagues echoes the recognition expressed in our most recent Decadal Survey that diversity, equity, inclusivity, and accessibility are "central to the success of the planetary science enterprise."
  • Buddha's simplest advice for how to live: Avoid negativities, build positivities and tame your mind. I heard this from the late Gelek Rimpoche, and fortunately, it's equally relevant (on an individual basis) no matter how distressing the external circumstances are.
  • "Evidence and facts will not be what changes anyone's mind, it will come down to human connections." This is something that Dr. OiYan A. Poon said at an event this week for her book Asian American Is Not a Color: Conversations on Race, Affirmative Action, and Family, hosted by Chinese for Affirmative Action and the hella cute retail venue On Waverly.

Dr. Poon's quote was illustrated by a story she shared from her book, which was so moving it brought a tear to my eye. This is the story of how a Korean cultural organization in Chicagoland was moved to provide resources and host a Black youth activist organization:

What moved the Korean immigrant constituency to welcome BYP100 was a community dialogue and presentation of photos during Min-Ji's organization's annual commemoration event memorializing the May 18 uprising in Gwangju, South Korea. Min-Ji explained to me that in May 1980 the US-backed South Korean military dictatorship sent in tanks and machine guns, slaughtering two thousand civilians who were peacefully protesting for democracy.

At the 2015 Gwangju commemoration event, photos of violent police repression of peaceful Black Lives Matter protestors in Ferguson and Baltimore were displayed next to photos from the Gwangju uprising. Min-Ji remarked, "People couldn't tell the difference between Gwangju and Ferguson and Baltimore. The the Korean first-generation [immigrant elders] said, 'Oh my God. This is happening here, same way.'"

---OiYan A. Poon, Asian American Is Not a Color

 

New office, new astro-blog.
Wed 2025-01-01 08:00  
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Happy New Year everybody; the Space Sciences Lab at UC Berkeley has just gotten a major upgrade... me!

At some point my older Astronomy webpage will be going offline. I will try to preserve some of the old content, but just let me know if you're searching for any particular dead link and I can try to restore it.