Let me set the stage for you before describing my eureka moment. My days have a set pattern. They all begin by taking Ginger out and playing Chuckit with her at the end of the lake. Returning home, I prepare a standard breakfast for Ginger and give her, as a chaser, a handful of medicine. Then, I replicate that dance for myself. I make hot cereal with mango chips and honey.

Ginger will follow me into the living room and sit at my feet, and I watch whatever is on TV. Having breakfast is quick, as in five to ten minutes. Then, I will exercise, shower, and go to my office and write. Lunch and dinner are similar.

However, the other day at lunchtime, the History Channel featured the decade-old movie Hidden Figures. I watched it again. It dealt with three black women who were mathematicians and worked for NASA at the naissance of our country’s space race with the USSR.

I had read about one of the women years ago. Her name was Katherine Johnson. I recalled that she developed an essential mathematical formula for our space race.

What did you see in that video clip? Give me a single sentence to describe that video. I’ll tell you two things that I saw. Looking at Johnson’s math equation, I remembered when Ti Ti, my granddaughter in Myanmar, showed me the math work she did for her math tutor. I had no idea what any of it meant. This is Ti Ti’s section on my website, College Days.

The other thing I saw in that video was about two dozen white guys in white shirts, black ties, and slacks. There was one white woman there also.

Another way of describing NASA's work areas is that it is racist and sexist. Johnson, as a black female, had to walk to another building where blacks could go the bathroom. Obviously, America hadn’t addressed racism or sexism in the early 60s.

One additional item. I attended Muskingum College from 1961-65. John Glenn lived in New Concord, Ohio, the small town where Muskingum College was located. He attended Muskingum for three years before enlisting in the Marine Corps during WWII.

Watch how Johnson deals with discrimination. She knows her math and will explain it to many men who couldn’t do or even understand the math. This scene is of a dozen and a half NASA directors, government leaders, military brass, and John Glenn discussing getting Glenn into orbit around the Earth. Glenn’s character is wearing a bowtie and jokes about a speeding ticket.

When one of the government people asks whether Glenn’s flight is a “go or no go,” watch what the NASA director does and what Glenn says about a speeding ticket.

Having taught art history as a student assistant at Muskingum College and taught at the college level for the last quarter century, the part of the video when the director gives the chalk to Johnson, I remembered Michelangelo’s painting in the Sistine Chapel.

Michelangelo gives life to Adam.

Finally, Glenn is in Earth orbit and getting ready for reentry. However, there is a signal that there is a problem with the heat shield. Glenn’s space capsule will enter the Earth's atmosphere at 17,500 mph if the heat shield comes off during reentry.

Glenn returned to the Earth safely and alive due to Johnson, who had an eighth-grade education in math. Years later, President Obama awarded the Presidential Medal of Honor to John Glenn and Katherine Johnson. Glenn died at 95 and Johnson at 101.

George Santayana was a great 20^th-century philosopher and an important mentor of mine. He wrote about the importance of education. “A child educated only at school is an uneducated child.” Santayana also warned us about remembering the past. “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

During our Orange President’s State of the Union speech, Trump said, “We have ended the tyranny of so-called diversity, equity and inclusion policies all across the entire federal government and, indeed, the private sector and our military....” He doesn’t see any need for having DEI. What he sees and says is the gospel.

Someone needs to sit down with Trump and watch Hidden Figures. That person must explain to our twice-impeached and convicted felon that he isn’t a hidden figure. Trump has a long list of personal and business legal affairs. He also has a lengthy legal affairs as president. I can’t think of anyone that has been more litigated than Trump.

This is NASA’s video of John Glenn’s flight.