Richard Branson's billion-dollar space flight that took all of 90 seconds of weightlessness in space illustrates a fundamentally absurd reality for humans on Earth.

First of all, we've got 540,000 documented homeless people in America.  We've got 13,000,000 million American children living in poverty.  We've got millions out of work.  We've got a $28 trillion debt. We've got drugs killing tens of thousands of our children. We've got roads falling apart, broken, potholed and dangerous.  We've got racial conflicts, Chicago killings, national shoplifting plague, species extinctions off the charts, worthless politicians, climate change about to take our entire species to the brink of existence.

And yet, with all of Branson's and Bezos's money, these two guys fly up into the stratosphere for 90 seconds of weightlessness and a ploy to send millionaires into space on future "pleasure cruises."

The fact is: humans are NOT going to EVER explore space past the moon and/or Mars.  They are NOT ever going to colonize other rock planets.  There is no such thing as Warp 9 star drive, and if there was, every person in the space craft would have his body cells mingling with the titanium at such speeds.

What would I do with billions of dollars? What needs to be done to sustain our civilization? What can we do to stabilize accelerating "catastrophic climate destabilization?"  Why aren't we using such moneys to bring about racial peace and harmony?  What about taking 13 million American children out of poverty with schools, jobs, rec centers, and homes?  What about solving the accelerating species extinctions that threaten our very existence in the 21st century?

The fact is, the human race is in trouble. America is in trouble.  We're all in trouble, but the finest minds and the biggest moneys are twiddling their thumbs or riding planes into the stratosphere—WITH NO SOLUTIONS, NO IDEAS, NO THRUST toward a sustainable and viable civilization.  

Somebody might want to sit Branson and Bezos down in a 'reality room' and show them what we face. I suggest to every American to watch these two documentaries:  "Cowspiracy" and "Seaspiracy" to give you an idea as to what our children face within the next 29 years.  I mean, their existence on this planet is not ensured, but in fact stands in the cross-hairs of civilizational collapse.

We need to change course, not keep riding aircraft into space that proves pointless, worthless, arrogant, non-sensical and utterly absurd when you consider a few of the aforementioned points.

Let's encourage Branson and Bezos to move their money toward conferences that engage the finest minds and "movers and shakers" on the planet to create a viable future.  Doesn't that make more sense than 90 seconds of weightlessness?

Frosty Wooldridge, six continent world bicycle traveler, with his feet on the ground working toward a viable and sustainable civilization  with a viable planet, instead of ego trips into space.