Tornado Alley (PROG)

[F6]

this college op/ed almost sounds like college paper stuff I recall from that other time over 30 years ago -- hmmm, interesting . . . (from the Binghamton University Pipe Dream [so named since its founding in 1946] of Binghamton University of S.U.N.Y.):

Bush and science face off

Daniel Schwartz
Op/Ed Editor

February 20, 2004

For the last two years, the name of the game for the Bush administration has been mistrust. Seemingly unquestionable evidence justifies our war on Iraq; later, that evidence turns out to be not only questionable, but outdated and blatantly false. Now the question becomes clear and terrifying. If we can't trust the president, whom can we trust?

This question resurfaced with violent force Wednesday when a group of 60 influential scientists issued a statement declaring that President Bush's administration has been bastardizing science and research in the last four years. They accused the president of putting incompetent partisans into advisory committees to influence findings. They claim that he has suppressed or censored reports made by his own scientists and has refused to seek independent confirmation of findings. They state that when a government panel gives advice that contradicts the administration's policy goals, it is disbanded. Bush, the statement maintains, has made a mockery of scientific fact in pursuit of his own interests.

These charges are grave in the extreme. In a time of environmental crisis, biomedical breakthroughs and health issues that threaten the nation and the world the government should seek objective advice from the scientific community. Once policymakers have that advice, they are duty bound to act in the best interests of the United States and make public their reasons for doing so. To say that Bush has not done these things is to state bluntly that he is acting in direct opposition to the American public's good for the sake of some personal interest. For a man of the president's power, such an action borders on the criminal.

Many conservatives have poo-pood detractors of Bush as fanatics and misinformed demagogues, eager to get easy publicity by criticizing a public leader whose term has been full of crises and emergencies that were totally unforeseen. But this is no crowd of sign-waving leftist goons seeking political advancement. One in three of the scientists who have spoken out against Bush are Nobel laureates.

These men and women have dedicated their lives to the advancement and betterment of mankind, to a spirit of progress and hope that can carry us into a more prosperous future. All they want is a president who can live up to that dream. They have something to gain in this public outcry, yes, but are conservatives willing to oppose objective science? Can the claim to "fair and balanced" representation hold if Bush has been so callously playing God with this country's scientific credibility?

Why should we care, you may ask? So some scientists think Bush is a liar. Most of the country thought that already. But I say that this new outrage takes the cake. A fast war killed a few thousand people and cost billions of dollars. Making policy based on bad science can lead to crises of epic proportions in the coming century.

The budget for environmental research is being cut again this year, even as pollution steadily increases and nontoxic air and water grow ever scarcer. HIV continues to ravage the world and is steadily increasing on college campuses, but an AIDS clinic that also offers information on abortion risks having to kiss its federal funding goodbye. Stem cell research could save millions in need of organ transplants, but the federal government refuses to invest a cent in it.

If Bush continues to make base his actions on faulty data he will go down in what remains of history as a man whose apathy caused the death of billions.

Something must be done. Bush must be forced to meet a higher standard or, if he cannot, he must be replaced by someone who can. Our course has never been clearer; our need for action has never been more dire. We must fight as hard as we can for a leader we can trust with our lives.

© 2004 Pipe Dream

http://www.bupipedream.com/022004/opinion/o3.htm