Dear
Paleonetters and all people interested in
Science---
On
Tuesday, George Bush was re-elected President of the United States. Whether or not you supported him is
inconsequential. What will have extreme consequences to those
interested in paleontology and the study of evolution is WHY he got
elected. Despite an unpopular war
in Iraq and an underperforming economy, millions of people turned out at the
polls to vote for Mr. Bush. The
reason they cited was “moral values.”
Most pundits define this as meaning anti-abortion and anti-gay
marriage, but it runs a little deeper than that. It is also anti-science, and for us,
anti-evolution. With 4 Supreme
Court Justice nominations looming in the next 4 years, Mr. Bush could appoint
very extreme right-wing justices who could effectively put prayer in school,
the Ten Commandments in public places and Creationism in the
classroom.
The
time is now for all of us to come together and realize what is happening. One THIRD of Americans are evangelical
Christians. They interpret the
Bible literally, which means that they do not believe Earth is 4.6 billion years
old, but do believe that the
Flood caused the Grand Canyon.
What was once thought of as a “fringe” element in American society has
become the majority and, as witnessed on Tuesday, they
VOTE.
The
question is…..what are we going to do?
To borrow from two recent campaign ads: there ARE wolves lurking in the
forest…are we going to bury our heads in the sand?
Sincerely,
Lisa
Park
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dr.
Lisa E. Park, Associate Professor
Department
of Geology
Crouse
Hall
252
Buchtel Commons
University
of Akron
Akron,
OH 44325-4101
USA
001-330-972-7633
(phone)
001-330-972-7611
(fax)
lepark@uakron.edu
Damnant
quod non intelligunt
(they
condemn what they do not understand)