Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Faith Before Science Leaves Greens In the Cold

While presidential frontrunners Clinton and Obama have refused to debate over matters of Science at the Science Debate 2008 on April 18, the Democratic candidates are eager to address issues of Faith at the Forum on Faith Issues on April 13. McCain has not yet committed to either. Logistical conflict has been cited, but given the importance of Science, why does it get the short shift?
"This is not a niche debate, the future economic success of the United States depends on out-performing the competition with smart people and smart ideas. Without the best education system and aggressive investments in basic research and development we will become a second rate economic power. We hope the candidates for president take this very seriously."

-Craig Barrett
Chairman, Intel

Green Party Presidential Candidates would love to take this seriously, but they were not invited, nor even responded to when inquiries were made, according to Green Party Presidential candidate Kent Mesplay, Ph.D. of Science. He along with fellow Grassroots Presidential candidates Kat Swift and Jesse Johnson will stage their own debate in Pennsylvania mid-April, both to discuss their deep concerns related to Science and to protest their non-representation at a forum where they feel they have some stake in being heard.

The supporters of the Science Debate 2008
include a list of prominent institutions, company executives and politicians. It has been planned for months, but what do you do if you throw a debate and no one shows up?

Depending upon what happens to Clinton in the next few primaries, perhaps after Pennsylvania's, the organization will hope to have a debate in Oregon before the state's primary in May.


resources:
Science Debate 2008
Forum on Faith
Plan B for the Science Debate

2 comments:

Amol said...

That's an interesting read. I wonder why the Green Party would be ignored altogether like that.

blog@polidoc.com said...

The candidates do not meet the 15 per cent polling threshold required by the organizers. Still, it would be inspiring to hear from people who actually have their head into science and it would be beneficial for these mainstream candidates to face a true progressive or two.