On Sunday evening writer and political strategist Sean Otto spoke to a group of National Public Radio science reporters in Austin on the topic of "Science in an election year." Otto is the spokesman (and de facto leader) of a united group of academics and University leaders (from which UT President Powers is conspicuously absent), business owners and scientists who hope to bring the pressing issues of global warming, stem cell research and America's desperate educational situation (among many other scientific concerns) to the forefront of this year's increasingly irrelevant political debate.
The group, dubbed Science Debate 2008, has tried repeatedly to get the presidential candidates to agree to a time, date and location to discuss some of the most pressing issues of the day. According to Otto, America faces a real and growing threat to its scientific (and hence, economic) preeminence, as indicated by our students' alarming descent into academic mediocrity and an explosion in the number of scientists and engineers operating in developing countries like China and India. By 2010, Otto contends, 90 percent of the world's scientists will live in Asia.
But instead of enthusiastic support from the presidential candidates who swear they are the most interested in education, health care and the environment, the group has been rebuffed by Obama's "change" campaign and received only vacillations from Clinton's disintegrating camp. Despite Otto and Co.'s urgent pleas for the "moral imperative" of recognizing science's central role in the host of issues confronting our nation, the two best chances for America to break from the dark ages of the Bush administration have instead decided to have a pleasant sit-down to decide who has more support from an invisible entity both candidates agree is non-acting and unknowable (and we're not talking about Dennis Kucinich!).
On Monday, presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton and presidential really-hopeful Barack Obama announced that they would take part in a "compassion forum" at Messiah College in Pennsylvania on April 13. CNN plans on being the exclusive broadcaster for this "wide-ranging and 'probing' discussion of policies related to moral issues," according to a press release from the network.
Though Otto remembers a nation that "used to gather its children together to watch a moon shot" and "prided itself on being the world leader of science," we now live in a country that would rather gather around the television to hear the personal "beliefs" of two focus group-approved candidates. These are dark days, indeed.
There is plenty of room for science in religion (and probably a little need for religion in science), but our candidates' decision to forgo an opportunity to discuss America's most urgent dilemmas displays a sickening misplacement of national and personal priorities. If America continues down its current path of scientific ignorance and indifference, it will take more than "divine intervention" to pull us out again.
We're not quite sure if Americans are really interested in seeing Obama parry more questions regarding his relationship to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, or seeing Clinton fall all over herself getting right with God. But this kowtowing to the Republican religious-political establishment is a sign that America may be in more trouble than its citizens would like to think.
- AV
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