Democrat Rep Sheila Jackson Lee visited Texas' Booker T. Washington High School on Monday to talk about the day's historic celestial event, the total solar eclipse. Here is her speech.
"In that direction, smaller than the sun, and the sun went in that direction, and then the Earth. Now those provide unique light and energy so that you have the energy of the moon at night, and sometimes you've heard the word full moon, sometimes you need to take the opportunity just to come out and see a full moon is that complete rounded circle, which is made up mostly of gases," Lee told the students.
"And that's why the question — the question is why, or how could we as humans live on the moon? The gas is such that we could do that."
"The sun is a mighty powerful heat, and it's almost impossible to go near the sun. The moon is more manageable. And you will see in a moment — or not a moment, you'll see in a couple of years that NASA is going back to the moon with human beings. Anybody heard of that?"
"Well, I know they're some humorously saying so, but we will — we are working now in the Artemis Project, to take human beings, astronauts, to land on the moon. I don't think we've been on the moon in the last 50 years. So we will be landing on the moon."
"What you will see today will be the closest distance that the moon has ever been in the last 20 years. Which means, that's why they will shut the light down because they will be close to the Earth, which is an amazing experience and what we are supposed to experience, and I'm hoping we can, complete darkness. That everything will be shut out. Now, we don't have any animals around here to be able to — maybe we'll hear some dogs barking — how they are impacted, but you will be able to tell because there'll be complete darkness."
"You have the legitimate glasses, do you not? All right, we want to make sure that no one tries to be cute and look up without anything on their eyes. Please don't think that's a joke because you will — we will be walking you out of here and we'll be holding your arm to get you out of here because you won't be able to walk yourself out. Do you understand what I'm saying? This is very serious."
"So what you're here for is to see the complete darkness. When I blow the whistle, we're all going out on the field to be able to experience — get your own little spot, don't jam up on somebody else, so you can see your own darkness. What we have in the packet is an explanation of the — not the complete scientific explanation, I think we're gonna get that later. I don't know if that's in that document or not."
"Oh, excellent. Okay, and then we have a book coming, but I'll hold this up. I think this is the book that we're doing, the solar eclipse and where and when. Okay. And so the students have done a beautiful job. And I think you each have this folder. So there's some who have read it, take a — take the chance to read it. And Dr. Simmons. I didn't go too far away from the scientific explanation. Is that correct? Hopefully."
"All right. So I was, I was near. But the one impact I want you to have is how you are controlled by something outside of your human experience. That the solar system is bigger than us, though there are solar systems and there are systems that are smaller than the Earth, still we’re in a solar system and we depend on the Earth, the moon, and the sun. That is our existence. That is what creates the — our desire for creativity, our music, our weather, our rain, our snow, our cold, our heat, that solar system working."
"And so this expression today is the use of the solar system working and you are beginning to see things happening. I will yield to trustee for just - for a word. Trustee Kathy Buford Daniels and the reason as well, you will see me again on May 18, that you are the science anchor of HISD and the science anchor of our public school system. Some of you are going into engineering. This is what engineering is, to see how our systems work and impact. How we create energy, How we're without energy, How we’re without the tools needed for the Earth to be warm, the Earth to be cold, the Earth to survive and human beings to live on the Earth. We have yet to know whether you can live on the moon. But I don't know about you. I want to be first in line to know how to live and to be able to survive on the moon. That's another planet which we're going to see shortly. Let us welcome Kathy Buford Daniels."
