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November 14, 2008

Hopefully Obama can get science back on right path

By Lynn Saternow

Here are some thoughts from a guy who fully realizes that the path of our country is tenuous at this time, even with a new president inspiring hope.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt once proclaimed: “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.” Easy for him to say, he had a job.

While he was trying to put an optimistic slant on our country’s direction at that time, there is no way to stem fear when it comes to a questionable future.

And it’s hard to convince people who lose their jobs, and must support their families, that fear is the only thing to fear.

I am certainly not the smartest person in the world — Shh, don’t tell my granddaughters — but people I don’t know sometimes call for my opinions. (People that I do know never ask — go figure.)

A worried 90-year-old lady called me the other day and said she was afraid about the way the economy was headed and wondered about my feelings on the possible bailout for the auto industry.

Like many of us, she questioned the millions of dollars that go to CEOs of failing companies and the outrageous union contracts which have driven up the costs of cars.

Another person called to vent about the economy and the multiple problems we face today.

And while nobody has all the answers, sometimes people just need to talk. And that’s a part of this job that I love. Hearing other peoples opinions or reading them in letters to the editor can be rewarding, whether they match my beliefs or not.

While I tell people that it will probably be five or six years before we really get the country stabilized, I think President-elect Obama immediately will get us going in the right direction. While the economy and Iraq war are two major concerns for most people, I was equally disturbed about the return to the Dark Ages of scientific advancements under George W. Bush. I’m surprised we didn’t start burning witches again – or at least torturing them.

One of the immediate promises of Obama is to push through stem-cell research, which was OK’d by Congress, but vetoed by Bush. We fell far behind other countries in what will someday save millions of lives. Some scientists reportedly left the country to work toward improving the human condition.

Being a biology major, I was greatly disturbed by that, as well as our refusal to take global warming seriously.

People are gullible and they believe the kind of brain-washing put out by some right-wingers that global warming isn’t real ... or that umbilical-cord cells can be just as useful as stem cells in working to combat human ailments ... or that evolution doesn’t happen.

Luckily, with Obama at the helm we can again start to reclaim our position as the scientific leaders of the world.

And that certainly won’t hurt the economy either.



The Herald’s Lynn Saternow writes this column each Saturday for the Opinion page.

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