SCIENCE
My life has turned out to be an interesting one. I’ve seen
things my great-grandparents couldn’t have imagined. One example comes to mind.
A particular horror of my youth was polio. According to theMayo Clinic, “Polio is an illness caused by a virus that mainly affects nerves
in the spinal cord or brain stem. In its most severe form, polio can lead to a
person being unable to move certain limbs, also called paralysis. It can also
lead to trouble breathing and sometimes death. The disease also is called
poliomyelitis.”
In school, we suffered through films featuring youngsters
like us confined to “iron lungs” that allowed them to breath despite the
ravages of polio. Epidemics would spread through our world on occasion and the fear
would come home, even into our kitchens. Someone told mothers that a test for
early stages of polio would be to place the child face up on the kitchen table,
the head hanging down over the edge. When instructed to raise the head to be
even with the body, failure to do so was a sure sign of polio.
It's impossible to explain the terror that accompanied that
simple command, “Now raise your head.”
Let us give thanks to science. Again, from the Mayo Clinic “A
vaccination effort throughout the world has led to only a small number of cases
to occur around the world in recent years. But poliovirus still spreads within
areas with low vaccination rates.”
Science also gave us penicillin, antibiotics, x-rays,
plastic surgeries, clean water, weather reporting and countless other benefits
of modern life.
Sadly, in my state, we have applied the brakes to such
progress. As I said, I’ve led an interesting life. Two college degrees, four
years of military duty, a marriage in its 53rd year, and a long career
as a fairly well-respected professional brought me to a comfortable retirement,
well … a comfortable semi-retirement. I still putter.
After all this, my family’s tax dollars go to schools that
teach young Americans that science is not only suspect, but also false, and even
evil in the sight of imaginary deities.
A White House spokesperson even coined the term “alternative facts” to justify lying to the American public and threatened loss of access to
reporters who didn’t accept them.
Powerful groups, aided by media nonchalance are undermining
the use of vaccines such as the ones that have diminished the horrors of smallpox
and polio.
It is possible now for a child to complete college believing that the universe is no more than 6,000 years old and science that eliminated polio is the work of some imaginary demonic force.
I've lived and interesting life but not always one that made a lot of sense.
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| The Evangelical's Dream |
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