I grew from a child to an adult during an exciting time. The NASA space program was moving rapidly toward taking humans to the moon. President Johnson pushed through Civil Rights legislation that would upend the era of Jim Crow segregation. The women’s liberation movement was promising young women like me that I might be anything that that I wanted to be. Scientific research and discoveries were changing the world at a pace never before seen. We looked forward, not backward as we built safeguards like Medicare and Medicaid. Somehow the old rules of white male dominance seemed to be a thing of the past but if I had been a bit wiser I might have realized that not everyone was as excited about the changes as I was.
There have always been humans who envisioned a spherical world and those who insisted that the earth was flat. Even when we did successfully reach the moon and have photographs of our planet from space there would be people who thought that the whole thing was a hoax created in a Hollywood studio. Somehow there always seem to be skeptics who insist that pioneers in medicine and science belong in jail rather than in charge of our medical facilities and universities. They cannot envision the hard work and scientific methods that have pulled humans forward from the Dark Ages over time.
Right now our government is being run by individuals more well versed in propaganda than scientific method. They question many of the advances that have led to longer healthier lives for humankind. Cancers that would have indicated a death sentence only a few years ago are now being treated successfully. Since World War II the United States has been at the forefront of scientific advancement and most of the work takes place in our world renowned universities. Sadly, the present administration is threatening much of the research that has been the mark of progress by removing funding for often frivolous reasons.
I am very much a booster of forward progress. I am willing to pay more taxes to keep our discoveries coming. I remember children afflicted by polio. I saw my grandmother die of colon cancer in the most painful way. There was even a time when medications came without tamper proof packaging that led to a nationwide scare as Tylenol capsules were tainted with cyanide.
So much that we now take for granted only came about because our government was willing to invest laws, time, and funding for important programs that moved us into the future. Of late we have become more and more attuned to the idea of reducing the taxes of even the wealthiest among us rather than attempting to pay for stronger better programs that we already know are providing better lives for most Americans. Somehow the fable of the tough individual who does not need the help of anyone else is very much alive and well even as it should be obvious that such a way of thinking might work for a few but rarely works for all.
It saddens me to know that NASA’s budget has been cut to the lowest point since it came to be. All too often we think of space travel as a luxury that we might do without. We forget how much we have learned about our planet and others because of NASA. We don’t think about the many inventions that we use daily in our homes that came from the necessity of creating things that would work well in outer space. We have learned more about our geography and weather. We now use satellites for worldwide communication. The list goes on and on, reminding me of the old adage that sometimes we are pennywise and pound foolish when we randomly shut down some of the very best programs that help us all.
I find myself thinking of my favorite science teachers like Mrs. Colby and Father Bernard who opened my eyes to the possibilities of the world that scientific research creates. I remember the excitement that they forged in me by teaching me about the incredible inventiveness of humans and the power of our human brilliance. I find myself wondering what ideas will be overlooked if we continue to dismantle the genius of the past seventy five years.
I wonder what will happen when we lose our best researchers to other nations because we destroy the programs that pay them to do their magic here. I worry that in our quest to cut this and cut that we will create a society that seems not to care whether or not we can all receive an adequate measure of care. How many cures will not be discovered? How many people will die because they do not have the means to pay for even minimal health services? Will people go hungry while the richest people in the world count their ever increasing piles of gold? Why have we decided that this is how we wish our nation to be? Why have we abandoned the progress that has defined our nation as one of the greatest places on earth? Why are we moving backward rather than into the future? I simply do not understand.
All It Takes Is A Little Love 