Friedman's Baby
I was all set to rip Bush a new one as soon as his state of the union was over either for pandering to the right or for making a bunch of promises I knew he wouldn't keep like all his other semi-do-good sounding projets over the years. But then I heard the speech and it reminded me of what everyone had been wanting to hear but wasn't expecting, what Thomas Friedman has been screaming for this past year, a Kennedy style moon-shot for our energy problem. Bush actually addressed it.
Friedman's point is essentially this. We need to fix a lot of things and the way to do it is with energy. If we invest in home grown energy we can actually address problems in oil rich countries without worrying about where to get our next oil fix from. And that also frees that oil up to go to countries we'll no longer have to compete with like China and India. So we won't have to go to war for oil. (Literally, not like it says on the banners at the rallies just to keep the flow going to the open market instead of actually plundering the oil.) If that home-grown energy is environmentally sound we'll fix the earth we're beginning to destroy. And that home-grown, environmentally friendly energy will have to be invented from one of our scientists of tomorrow which means addressing our education and immigration issue. We have had significant drops in students going into the sciences and we have been sending immigrants who study science in America back to their own countries instead of encouraging them to stay here and investing back in the country that educated them.
30 science industry leaders got together, raised 400 points, agreed on 399 of them unanimously and sent their findings on to Capital Hill. Bush has essentially set his goal around these proposals for the most part. Cutting a few corners here and there but essentially, says this panel, accepting the 10 year program of $9 billion the first year and growing to $19 billion by year 10 in investments in this country's sustainability.
We simply can't lead or even survive in tomorrow's world when our only export left is American Idol and The O.C.
So now Thomas Friedman has written his response to Bush's response of Thomas Friedman, the man who I believe is most responsible for encouraging the "Geo-Green" movement. And he brings up a point I think we should all face. Bush has made his proposals and we need to make him stand up for them and not back down. Make him stay true to his word because we can't afford to just ignore him for another three years, we don't have the luxury of time any more. We need to invest now. The kids in elementary schools today are the ones that must save this country. And it's going to be a few years before they're out of the sandbox and into those labs.
I know with Bush my pessimism has become my reality and my optimism has become my fantasy but what choice do we have in a 4 term presidency? Write to the White House, write to your representatives and let's get this ball rolling.
posted by Jaime Schwarz @ 10:21 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Hear, hear, Jaime! It was nice to see a step toward improving science and math education, specifically, and I hope it will happen, because right now, China and India are smoking us in that department. There is a large disparity between the percentage of people going after science degrees in this country and the percentage of those in other countries who seek the same degrees. Don't get me wrong, at this moment the US is the clear choice for the place to actually DO science, which is why the Chinese and Indians and other foreigners come here to study and to work, but that's going to change in the near future once those countries become more developed. The one thing that Bush mentioned in this regard that I was disappointed in was that he specifically mentioned the physical sciences as needing much more funding (which is true if we're going to get those alternate energies going) but did not mention funding for the life sciences, which I take as meaning that the increases in funding will not be good for those of us in that field. My field has seen a dramatic fall off in funding over the past couple of years, some of which is due to the reallocation of funds to other areas for good reasons, but let's not forget biomedical research! Except if you want to create an animal/human hybrid. That's just silly. Except of course if you want to create Scorpion Boy.
I truly am scared you're right about life sciences. But this is a president who cuts and cuts anything that isn't pushed up to the front for much public viewing. He even cut programs like that too, like no child left behind which still isn't fully funded. I fear if you want life sciences funding you'll just have to vote Democrat. Sorry man.
Republicans may be big government now, but not in the good way.
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