Solving cancer, energy, and other pressing issues

Throughout

elementary and middle school, I was captivated by my science classes, eager to

understand the complex mechanisms of the world surrounding me. Scientific principles led me to be

rational and to question everything. I embraced the fact that there

is much I do not know and was in turn excited to explore the universe.

As I moved on to high

school, I found that there is still much that science does not know. Day in and day out, researchers continue to

push the boundaries of the quantum and galactic levels.

Humanity is still so

young. We cannot even conceive how

technology will change our species over the next million years – a melancholy

thought for those, like me, who want to be there to experience it.

I was instantly drawn

into the scientific community by its commitment to truth, rich history, and

open-mindedness. However, by surrounding

myself with the scientifically-minded, I found myself bubbled-in. I was blind to a different view of science –

one that often did not understand it and was sometimes frightened by it. Not everyone saw science the way I did, a

vital undertaking that has brought us the comforts of the 21st

century. Science was not receiving the

support I knew it deserved.

In fact, some even sought

to replace science in science classrooms and succeeded. I was unaware that my state legislators had

been passing backwards legislation that was crippling the education of students

who will one day take on the responsibilities of our future.

During my senior year at

Baton Rouge Magnet High School a close friend, Zack Kopplin, pulled me into the

fight against creationists in Louisiana. I testified before the Louisiana

Senate Education Committee, illustrating how the misnamed Louisiana Science

Education Act, our state’s Orwellian creationism law, would stifle future

innovation in Louisiana and my fellow students’ future.

Louisiana legislators

continue to stubbornly uphold this creationism law. I watched shocked as

creationists rambled incoherently about how evolution was “made up” and was helpless as our

elected officials, who were supposed to help our students, attacked them instead. As

our fight progressed in Louisiana, the battle ground expanded. Tennessee

passed a creationism law. My new home, Texas, is trying to throw out

evolution. Simultaneously, voucher programs continue to bring public

money into creationist schools across the country.

We will continue to fight

science denial in America, but we also must look forward. Science needs a

larger presence in the political dialogue and in the minds of the public.

Reaching back to humanity’s crowning achievement, we must have a Second Giant

Leap for Mankind.

Science and technology is

what drives America – and humanity – forward.

Our near future holds some serious issues that have the potential to

drastically affect the story of the human race. Cardiovascular disease,

cancer, and AIDS continue to take the lives of hundreds of thousands of people

every year. Even after so many years, fossil fuels are still our primary

energy source. Climate change maintains its threat to ecological

stability, and we are still not prepared for future asteroids that may threaten our

very existence.

In this technological

age, science cannot be ignored. The internet has given us unprecedented

global communication, exponentially accelerating the development of our

exciting future. However, public involvement is necessary for the

infrastructure revolution that needs to take place. Too many unnecessary

deaths can be avoided if we automate

vehicles;

imagine a world without drivers. Evacuated Tube Transportation (ETT)

technology offers

a modern solution to transportation that would send passengers from New York to

Beijing in two hours for a fraction of the cost of a plane ticket.

But none of this can be

possible without the public support of science and a change in the politics of science

and science funding. A member of the U.S. House of Representatives

Science Committee recently called evolution “embryology” and the Big Bang

theory “lies straight from the pit of hell.” But he’s not just

one bad egg. The former Chairman of this same science committee claimed

that the evidence supporting climate change is only a conspiracy to garner more

funding for science. These Congressmen introduce legislation that

threatens our invaluable intellectual resources. How can the U.S. attempt

to continue to be leader in this more progressive world?

We need to tap into our

scientific resources, not stifle them with outdated thinking. We need to

be a leader in the international evolution into the modern world.

So call your

Congressman. Send a letter. Show up at his or her door. Be

loud. Science has brought us social networking; use it to demand a

contemporary world and nation that is long overdue. This is the most

promising time for our advancement in science so give it a new voice.

Remember our past success, and call on America for a Second Giant Leap for

Mankind.