crossposted to The Next Hurrah
While we in the blue states may scratch our head and wonder what's the matter with Kansas, this story hits closer to home for me.
DOVER, Pa., Sept. 23 - Sheree Hied, a mother of five who believes that
God created the earth and its creatures, was grateful when her school board here voted last year to require high school biology classes to hear about "alternatives" to evolution, including the theory known as intelligent design.
But 11 other parents in Dover were outraged enough to sue the school board and the district, contending that intelligent design - the idea that living organisms are so inexplicably complex, the best explanation is that a higher being designed them - is a Trojan horse for religion in the public schools.
With the new political empowerment of religious conservatives, challenges to evolution are popping up with greater frequency in schools, courts and legislatures. But the Dover case, which begins Monday in Federal District Court in Harrisburg, is the first direct challenge to a school district that has tried to mandate the teaching of intelligent design.
What happens here could influence communities across the country that are considering whether to teach intelligent design in the public schools, and the case, regardless of the verdict, could end up before the Supreme Court.
Dover, a rural, mostly blue-collar community of 22,000 that is 20 miles south of Harrisburg, had school board members willing to go to the mat over issue. But people here are well aware that they are only the excuse for a much larger showdown in the culture wars.
Many have commented with the hope that Terry Schiavo was the high water mark of cultural conservative over-reaching, but not so. For too long, we have paid too little attention to our local school boards, often an elected position with no one paying any attention to the makeup and views of whom we elect -- until it's too late.
I believe the Bush Administration, with it's know-nothing approach to science, is a significant part of the problem, creating the atmosphere for this. They do it directly by undermining science (David Gergen took george Will apart over this on This week (ABC), comparing the denial over global warming to the denial over the cancer potential of cigarettes in the 60's and 70's).
But all politics is local in the end. Kudos to the 11 who are challenging this in court:
"You can dress up intelligent design and make it look like science, but it just doesn't pass muster," said Mr. Stough, a Republican whose idea of a fun family vacation is visiting fossil beds and natural history museums. "In science class, you don't say to the students, 'Is there gravity, or do you think we have rubber bands on our feet?' "
The case, Kitzmiller et al v. Dover Area School District, will be decided by Judge John E. Jones III of the United States District Court, who was nominated by President Bush in 2002 and confirmed by a Senate vote of 96 to 0. The trial is expected to last six weeks and to draw news coverage from around the world.
So while we've got worries about a brewing potential pandemic in SE Asia, the war against science continues on the homefront. Terrific; just what we need to put things in focus. Oh, well, look at it this way. A very prominent infectious disease expert was asked how to get ready for a pandemic. His answer? "Pray, prepare and practice. In that order." He was referring to what little effort has gone into vaccine research and preparation in prior years (as in, if it hits soon, we're screwed), but he might as well have jumped on the bandwagon. A faith based approach to the modern world: coming soon to a science classroom near you.
Click the link for more information about Pandemic Flu Awareness Week