How about some good news, for a change? Here are a couple of recent Central New York developments worth celebrating:
Syracusan heading to space
Syracuse native Jeanette Epps, 53, is scheduled to fly next month to the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX rocket. It will be the culmination of a dream that began when Epps was nine years old, growing up with her twin sister, Janet, on West Kennedy Street.
Achieving her dream to be an astronaut took a lot of hard work – academically, physically and, most of all, psychologically. Epps had to find the resilience and mental toughness to overcome the disappointment of being removed from a 2018 mission with no explanation from NASA. She would have been the first Black woman on the Space Station.
Epps kept her head up, practicing what she tells young people who want to follow her path: Don’t be so focused on the end goal that it ruins the successes along the way. You get there through hard work at every step — and also through the grace of others.
Epps is quick to cite the support of her parents, Luberta and Henry Epps; the mom of a Corcoran High School classmate who often drove her to an internship in the suburbs; and the undergraduate education she and Janet received at Le Moyne College. These institutions and individuals should be proud of their roles in encouraging Epps to soar.
We hope every child growing up in Syracuse takes to heart this message from their barrier-breaking hometown astronaut: “You’re not limited to that little world that you live in now.”
The sky’s not even the limit for Jeanette Epps. Godspeed to her and the other members of SpaceX Crew-8.
Sheriff tightens body camera policy
We commend Onondaga County Sheriff Toby Shelley for closing holes in the department’s policies and training surrounding the use of body-worn and dashboard cameras.
Those holes became apparent after a deputy fatally shot two teens fleeing in a stolen car in DeWitt. The deputy did not activate his body camera, so the…
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