From: Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@www.aeiveos.com)
Date: Sat Aug 28 1999 - 04:27:49 MDT
Well, rather than spout at a mailing list that may not have much
effect, I sent a letter to V.P. Gore (from pages under
www.whitehouse.gov), attached is a copy, use the ideas
as you chose:
-------------------------
Dear Vice President Gore,
It is with great disappointment that I have recently
read about your position that you support local
level decisions to allow the teaching of "creationism".
Essentially this is a license to allow local school
boards, stacked by religious zealots, to teach
children something that scientists by a wide margin
agree is total hogwash. Will you next be saying
that it is ok for schools to teach that the world
is flat? Furthermore, you are providing a message
that it is fine for communities to use my tax money
to educate my children in "anti-scientific" beliefs.
This is unacceptable. As the president of a company
that conducts biotechnology research, I cannot help
but feel, that in the long run this will only increase
the resistance of the population to accepting things
like genetic engineering that have the potential for
improving the quality of life for everyone on the
planet.
During the last several elections, I have voted
for Democrats in the presidential election to
offset the increasing power of the Republicans
in Congress. Your position, that seems to be
dictated by political spin requirements, makes
me question whether the Republican position
regarding education, i.e. allowing my tax dollars
to be used at a school of my choice -- in my
instance to send my children to a school that
teaches science, rather than beliefs -- is not a
better approach.
I might suggest that you could have taken the
high ground in this matter. Instead of adopting
a position that teaches evidence is equivalent
to non-evidence, you could have argued that a
proper approach is the balanced presentation
of *all* points of view. In this respect you
could have suggested that a balanced presentation
of *all* religions to the students of America
would increase our appreciation of diversity
and encourage critical thinking. If the people
backing the "evolution" vs. "creationism" debates
really want to advance the presentation of
alternative approaches, then this should be
acceptable to them. If they are simply
pushing a religious agenda, then they would
object to this and be exposed as hippocrites.
---------------
And you readers that don't live in the U.S. --
send a letter to V.P. Gore telling him he makes
us look stupid overseas... (if you so believe).
---------------
Robert
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