It pays to review how the extremist right has and is succeeding in their attack on science. Like everything else, they started at the local level decades ago, recruited and supported grass-root conservatives, got them elected to school boards and local legislatures, worked out clever, misleading PR rhetoric, and then funneled that through a burgeoning neo-conservative media machine. In the paraphrased words of George Lakoff it was "done in the open, it was done legally, and it was smart." Obviously, one smart way to offset the anti-science pep-squad is to start with proper science education in K-12 schools, beginning with keeping industry and wing-nut propaganda
out of developing young minds, while getting legitimate scientific education
in.
This brings me to what you can do: We have an actual horse race developing for the Ohio Board of Education. The good news is the hard work of recruiting and much of the science/education grassroots infrastructure has already been put in place by organizations like HOPE --Help Ohio Public Education. Some of the brightest minds in Ohio have recruited a challenger, former Democratic U.S. Rep. Tom Sawyer of Akron to run. Sawyer is the author of the National Literacy Act and the Eisenhower Mathematics and Science Improvement Act. Ed Brayton has more:
Sawyer's bonafides for a board of education seat are impressive. He is a former school teacher, and husband of a school teacher. He was the chairman of the House Education Committee during his time in the state legislature of Ohio, and was a member of the education committee in the US House of Representatives as well. So this is a guy who brings an enormous amount of experience to the job, which has [his opponent] scared.
But in the pocket of the pseudo-scientific right is incumbent and Professor of Marketing, Dr. Deborah Owens Fink (See comment). In addition to pushing Intelligent Design Creationism and vouchers, Dr. Fink has ties to Kenneth Blackwell and is, shall we say, familiar with the state and national GOP cash machine. Dr. Fink recently referred to the National Academy of Sciences as "a group of so-called scientists," and to Tom Sawyer's impressive, bipartisan support in the scientific and teaching community--including prominent Science Bloggers--as "just a small group of dogmatic scientists..." So, what do you say we add some 'diversity' to that 'small' group?
Why might someone from outside of Ohio want to lend a hand? Because Ohio is one of the primary test beds for developing and test marketing anti-science drivel, like creationism, but they're clever enough to 'export' the prototype to other communities. In true chicken-hawk form, these crafty, neoconservative anti-science operatives bravely allow other tax-payers to shoulder the risk to local tax-bases and reputations (Known in some circles as the dreaded "Dover Trap").
The Tom Sawyer for Board of Education campaign, and the entire country, could benefit from national help: This is one of those kind of races where even a few dollars, or a handful of volunteers willing to pitch in a few hours, could make a huge difference to us all. If we win, we help elect a candidate to a position to influence and introduce legitimate science education to students of all ages in a key state. At the least, we help pin down a ton of anti-science and mid-term GOP resources in Ohio. Either way, it's smart, it's legal, and it can hardly be more open than this. You know what to do, so do whatever you can.
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