Facts matter, so expect marchers to descend on the Capitol again
One year ago, we stood on the south steps of the Capitol and looked out on a sea of thousands of Texans. We were there to demand something that by today’s standards almost seems radical: How about we just stick to facts.
The event was the March for Science — one of hundreds of similar marches that same day across the country and around the world organized to champion science and STEM advancement for the betterment of humanity. This year’s march is on Saturday.
These marches are in response to a new administration headed by a president who routinely dismisses climate change science as a conspiracy. He also traffics in a host of other “alternative facts,” like his unfounded 2012 claim that energy-efficient light bulbs “can cause cancer.”
The vice president, for his part, has in the past denied the well-established, settled science on evolution and climate change.
In other words, science advocates had plenty to fear. Those fears have proven valid as science has come under attack in many ways in the current government.
Take, for instance, the office of White House science advisor, a position that remains vacant because the president has yet to make a nomination. There’s also the decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accord. And let’s not forget the downright Orwellian directive prohibiting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from using seven words and terms, including “evidence-based” and “science-based.”
Here at home, attacks on science are something we’re all too familiar with. Texas is a state where doctors are required to give misinformation to women seeking their constitutionally protected right to abortion care. And despite their ineffectiveness, abstinence-only policies remain the preferred approach to sex education. Texas is also a place where a former chair of the State Board of Education once infamously demanded that someone must “stand up to experts” who want to teach evolution.
For all who marched a year ago, we suspect you see the situation in our state and nation and you feel disappointment — or even despair.
Don’t despair — act. Change in our political system happens slowly. And action and activists are usually the source of political change.
Look at what happened less than 24 hours before last year’s march when the state education board considered a revision of public school curriculum standards for science. For decades those standards included language designed to undermine the teaching of evolution. That’s not the case anymore.
That day the board voted in favor of stripping the anti-evolution language. It was, unquestionably, a victory for science.
This win for science was many years in the making. Making it a reality took commitment from scientists, the persistence of scholars and the dedication of public schoolteachers. It took pro-science organizations and grassroots activists who showed up, meeting after meeting, year after year, to do everything from contacting their state board member to showing up and testifying in support of science. It took the support of many of the people who marched with us last year.
So, to those of you who were there, we ask you to stay in the fight.
Remember that positive change takes persistence over many months or even years — and it can start with something as basic as holding a sign at a science march and demanding better of elected officials.
We hope you’re ready to march again — and please remember these three things: Evidence is important; facts matter; and science is real.
It appears that the Democratic Party places the well-being of American warriors below that
Re: April 15 article, “Longtime radio host of ‘Coast to Coast AM’ dies.”
Marc Fisher’s (Washington Post) obit on Art Bell manages sound mostly positive regarding the man while dismissive of his radio show’s “most fantastic and unlikely tales.” I suggest Fisher does some reading up on the latest finds in quantum mechanics before writing off the Coast to Coast audience and their fascinations.
Bell was a visionary in the truest sense — willing to explore beyond the conventional sound barrier in so many ways. Here’s hoping he’s receiving a hero’s welcome at the next level of existence.