There's no difference between men and women, right?
Men and women can work together under any circumstances without any complications, right?
Men and women can be confined to small places together for days and weeks on end without problems of sexual tensions and emotional involvements, right?
In fact, men and women can be thrown together in the most extraordinary circumstances of war and combat without risk, right?
That's what we've been told.
And no amount of common sense can defeat these myths perpetrated by cultural and governmental institutions driven by political correctness and the need for social experimentation.
Then we wonder how and why presumably well-disciplined, highly trained people like Lisa Marie Nowak, a married mother of three, a mission specialist on the Discovery space shuttle last summer, could just go … well … nuts.
It seems this young mom got emotionally involved with another astronaut, Bill Oefelein, also married, as did yet another astronautess, Air Force Capt. Colleen Shipman.
So, she did what you would expect any well-disciplined, highly trained professional would do. She donned a trench coat a la Keanu Reeves in "The Matrix," donned a wig, loaded up with crude weapons like a knife, a steel mallet, a BB gun, rubber tubing, plastic bags and black gloves and drove 900 miles from Houston to Florida to clear the air with her rival for the affections of Oefelein.
She apparently wore adult diapers during the long drive so she wouldn't have to waste time stopping.
Now she's been charged with attempted first-degree murder, attempted burglary of a vehicle, attempted kidnapping, battery and destruction of evidence.
She has also been placed on leave with NASA.
While awaiting trial, she's been fitted with a GPS tracking device that can monitor her location and ordered to stay out of eastern Florida where Shipman resides near the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Fla.
An investigator says Nowak told him she was never planning to hurt Shipman, just scare her and force her to talk about the love triangle.
Just as disturbing is the way Nowak was able to use her position in government to obtain a copy of Shipman's flight plans and detailed maps of the interior layout of the airport terminal and a detailed schedule showing the shuttle bus service that would transport Nowak to a satellite parking lot – the place she would ambush Shipman.
There was apparently lots of time to think about what she did, consider the options, plan an attack. Preparation apparently lasted weeks.
This may seem like just a sadly amusing story, one in which real tragedy was averted. But you have to consider the lives that have been affected already. What about Nowak's husband? What about her children? What about Oefelein's family?
Yes, these people made irresponsible choices. But what do we expect to happen when we place men and women in high-stress environments where they must work together in extremely confined places, away from their families for long periods of time?
Is this really such a great idea, after all?
Is this really such a big surprise?
Wouldn't we sort of expect complications under such conditions?
The truth is sexuality is a very potent force in the lives of human beings. Judging from the number of TV commercials I see for sexual enhancement products these days, it would seem we recognize this simple fact.
Yet, we continue to believe men and women are really the same – that we can place them in space together or in combat together without adverse consequences, without results that jeopardize missions.
Isn't it time for a reality check?
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