A month ago Glenn Beck plays pseudo-evangelist for cash. Then Ed Schulz and many of the nation's progressive labor and rights organizations marched for unity. Next week Stewart and Colbert lead a march ofr common sense.
But the real action on the National Mall was this week. Political movements come and go, but the potential of our youth is forever. The National Science and Engineering Festival showed clearly how excited our young people could be--freed from the stranglehold of multiple choice tests and the threat of having all logic and curiosity crushed from them.
Preliminary reports show an astounding attenance.
Thousands of students ventured to Washington D.C. for this weekend's finale to the 2010 Science and Engineering Festival. Booths lined the National Mall as the event sought to pique the interest of the nation's youth in science and math through an array of interactive exhibits.
Hundreds of volunteers celebrated intelligence and creativity this weekend. Rumor had it that a "band" of four Bible-thumping anti-evolutionists were moving through, but they never materialized. Instead, volunteers were swarmed by big eyes, curious hearts, and devoted parents and grandparents.
President Obama is driven by science--by good information and good research. (Yes, I was disappointed by some EPA pronouncements about the Gulf disaster, but an honest look at how our nation's research communitity is being treated tells everyone that CHANGE has happened.)
Two days of celebration on the mall this weekend were just the culmination of a week of events that included awards, presentations and contests. The Mall's activities included concerts and tents small and large featuring all the excitement of a state fair.
And to quote the elderly lady who still writes the "society column" in our small town newspaper, a good time was had by all.
But there was also an inconvenient truth here--actually two.
The first was reflected in the often-repeated comments of parents: "We wish we still had science in our schools..." The national tolerance for rote tests of basic skills is running thin.
And the second represents the increased divide in this country between haves and have nots, that is represented in school resources. (I hesitate to even write it, because I know that someone will try to take it the wrong way.) The vast majority of the families who crowded into those tents to share science with their children were not what Ms. Half-Term Governor Palin would call "Real America." In brief, it was clear that the most supportive families in America were what Palin and Co. might call "minorities." The widest eyes and curious questions came from the "real America" and they are the wealth of our future.
That is, if we make the effort to get them the schools they need--and to do that we have to vote! (again and again and again)