In Defense of the Young Woman Who Told a NASA Legend to “Suck My Dick and Balls” After Being Accepted Into Their Internship Program
This is a story I only know about, because I follow Joe Rogan on Twitter and listen to his podcast regularly. It’s one I’m glad I found out about though.
For those who don’t know, a young woman named Naomi H was granted into NASA’s internship program late last week. In a moment of excitement (and definite lapse of better judgement), she took to Twitter to announce it to the world. It was how she went about announcing it though, where she began to steer wrong. Rather than tell you, I’ll just show you the exchange between her and Homer Hickam on Twitter. The exchange that ended up costing her a highly coveted internship with one of the most respectable organizations around.
So, the poor girl was overly excited and used a bad word in announcing she had just been named an intern for an organization I can only imagine she’s dreamed of working for, her entire life. I say that because you don’t just wake up and decide you want to be a NASA apprentice one day. It’s something you’ve most likely worked your entire life for.
And in comes Homer Hickam, to rain on her parade. For anyone who doesn’t know (I didn’t — and apparently neither did Naomi), Homer Hickam is kind of a big deal, at least as far as NASA is concerned. He is a former NASA engineer, who trained the first Japanese astronauts. He wrote a memoir in 1998, titled Rocket Boys, which was also published as October Sky and served the basis for the 1999 film of the same name. The book made The New York Times Best Sellers List. I’m guessing, like myself, Naomi never read the book.
Oh — and as he couldn’t wait to point out — he is now on the National Space Council that oversees NASA. Well, Bravo Mr. Hickam. We’re happy for you.
Listen, as wrong as Naomi was for both tweets, can we at least acknowledge her having told a NASA legend to “suck her dick and balls” was hilarious?
It took me two solid minutes to catch my breath from laughing, after I first heard about the story. It is pure gold — but apparently NASA didn’t think so — as they immediately rescinded her internship.
Here’s my real issue with her losing her internship. For starters, I envision Homer Hickam immediately calling his friends at NASA after his exchange with young Naomi, completely outraged and demanding they pull her internship. Not so much because he was offended by her language — but because his ego was hurt by the fact, she had no idea who he was. His pride was crushed by the fact she never read Rocket Boys or paid close attention when they rolled the credits of October Sky.
You can almost sense it in his tweet. Like NASA should be handing out copies of his book to all their interns. This leads to him mansplaining and grandstanding in his final comment to young Natalie. She immediately gets silent, before presumably regretting ever having joined Twitter to begin with.
I’ll bet she even went as far as messaging him a well thought out and heartfelt apology, one he probably ignored before calling NASA, in true tattle tale fashion. I hope the person he reported her to, at least laughed their ass off.
I guess I’m just bothered by the fact a well to do and well off grown man, went and possibly ruined the potentially very bright future of a young woman, over a few words she uttered out of excitement — in an obvious momentary lapse of judgement. While there’s really no defense for her actions, at the end of the day, it was a few harmless tweets. Harmless to everyone except butt hurt Homer, anyway. So a young girl told you to “suck her dick and balls, she’s working at NASA”, get over yourself Homer.
Joe Rogan described her tweets as “an all American moment of excitement” and I think that sums them up better than I possibly could. She’s young and was proud of herself. Perhaps she even had a few drinks to celebrate, after finding out the big news. Most of us have had a few drinks and posted something we’ve regretted on social media. Granted, most of us weren’t working at NASA at the time thankfully — but I still can’t help but feel for young Natalie. If she truly has ruined her space career, hopefully she ends up trying her hand at stand up comedy because I personally find the whole situation hilarious. Shame on you Mr. Hickam for taking yourself so goddamned seriously and for what it’s worth, I had no idea who you were either. I found her tweets to be far more entertaining than I did October Sky, that’s for sure.
