Gil Scott Heron - Whitey on the Moon (1970)

1) What does this poem mean?

Gil Scott Heron’s poem “Whitney on the Moon” has been

used in the past to critique the space race. And the 1970
poem resurfaced this week in response to the recent
influx of billionaires launching into the lower regions of
space or other planets except for the Earth. It means that
the space race is trendy at the moment.

2) Is Jeff Bezos who recently took a space tour, the

modern-day Whitey on the moon?

Yes, as I research, Jeff Bezos, former Amazon CEO,

founder of space company Blue Origin, and the
wealthiest man in the world. His flight, which was the
anniversary of the first people walking on the Moon – Neil
Armstrong, spent a total of 10 minutes and 10 seconds.
He went with his brother, Mark Bezos, who is 18 years
old and aviation pioneer Wally Funk, 82 years old
(Source: The Associated Press). The post of Bezos in
Tweeter went viral, receiving more than 5.600 likes, more
than 2.400 shares. His company, Blue Origin hopes to fly
in this year will take place in September or October.

3) Should we be exploring space when humans have such

problems here on the Earth?
In my point of view, we could explore space on the Earth
when humans have to deal with some problems if we
had enough money to afford it. I think there are two main
reasons why people should do that: they can relax to get
out of a hard time of life and they know exactly about our
planet – the Earth.

First of all, I know everyone has their own sadness or

stress, therefore, going to other places may make their
feel good and relax. They may make them interested
when exploring something newly and differently in their
space. These experiences give them more chances to
have great moments with people who will go with they.

The second reason is that going out to the Earth helps

us know more about our planet. They only know the
Earth is the third planet in the solar system, we do not
know its surface. By these chances, they have a range of
knowledge of astronomy, the Earth. And, they do some
ways to protect the Earth as well as the environment.

For these reasons I have mentioned above, people

should try it one time to relax after busy lives and know
more and more about their planet.