Why Science Is Dying In America

The floorplan of the Superconducting Supercollider:

Click on to enlarge.

I was paging through some of my old Supercollider memorabilia when I happened across some of the "letters to the editor" that I had cut out and saved.

One in particular stands out, written by one Shirley M. Erikson of Waxahachie, Texas, addressed to the editor of the Waxahachie paper.

Said this fine example of reason and logic:

The killing of the SSc is truly a miracle... I spoke to God many times through unselfish prayers. I did not ask him to kill the SSC and I did not ask him to save the SSC. I told God about how concerned I was about the radiation that the SSC would produce and the effects if would have on the people of Ellis county.

This woman talked to God many times, with pure unselfishness in her heart. But getting the SSC "killed" was a Godly miracle....

She further said:

I also told God how concerned I was about the financial burden it would put on the American people.

How can the small number of scientists this nation produces compete with the ignorance and stupidity of people like this woman? Perhaps, just perhaps, there were and are enough people like this witless simpleton in America to convince our federal government to just give away all our research to a nation that will appreciate it, something it is presently doing.

The financial cost to the American people? I wonder if today this concerned citizen is writing the editor about the financial burden of Bush's wars. Since the entire SSC would have cost less than two weeks worth of Iraqi war, I'm sure she is, unless - of course - she has talked to God about it - with pure unselfishness of course - and God has told her that Bush is doing as ordered by the almighty himself.

If she and her daughters, nieces, etc. end up wearing Burkas or end up as sex objects in a Chinese whorehouse, she and her progeny and others of her ilk - will have gotten exactly what they deserve.