I remember the fellow traveler Sputnik blinking across the
night sky
As my family stood in our back yard watching awed and amazed,
not realizing
Being eleven years old I would benefit from the fearful
reaction funding science
Investing massively in education and research and
development.
That satellite flashing like a beacon for all the world to
see
The technological superiority of the Soviet Union
Spreading panic among the rulers that their demise was on
the horizon
Such irony to name their answering exploding rocket launch
Vanguard.
The elevation of science in those days to the curriculum
priority
How different from today when science is disputed by the
government
When science is only funded privately to produce agribusiness and
pharmaceutical profits
When schools teach against evolution and climate change is
questioned.
The science advanced back then connected pollution to human
health
Like acid rain downwind caused by power plants burning coal
Like lung disease caused by automobile exhaust and trash
burning smog
Like cancer caused by pesticides and industrial wastewater discharge.
Activists mobilized to stop such harmful poisoning of the
earth
As if the government’s purpose is to ensure the public good
Enacting environmental protection regulations to restrain
the worst offenders
Rules that get dropped now as an oppressive burden to
business.
Today science in the service of capitalism is a
contradiction
When social costs and benefits are ignored by the policy
makers
The notion of the scientist as independent from politics is
untenable
As the basic research budget gets cut and given to military
aggression.
As they hasten to eliminate the EPA science to boost polluter
profits
Rousing even the otherwise apolitical to want to resist
Plans for a massive march in support of science take shape
Building a resurgent opposition to the capitalist business
imperative.
The facts remain, stubbornly arguing against the deniers
Inviting any honest person to explore alternative government
structure
Leading to an investigation of scientific socialism as the
solution
To bring about a science dedicated to serving the needs of
the people.
