A Bernie Supporter goes shrill
Devon G. Peña, Ph.D.
Professor, UW
American Ethnic Studies, Anthropology, and Program on the Environment
Stephen and colleagues:
Why post dated misinformation from the Clinton campaign disguised as a neutral observer’s comments? The fact is that Sen. Sanders also supports fed funding of stem cell research. Here is a link that explains his record more accurately:
http://www.ontheissues.org/Social/Bernie_Sanders_Abortion.htm
Also, there are are more important issues in this campaign with implications for the future of science as a common public asset we can deploy in the political process: like free college education; the tyranny and dysfunction of Wall Street; a failed hawkish foreign policy; climate change; environmental justice and the deterioration of our public infrastructure (the Flint syndrome); racism and the worst inequality since the 1920s; mass incarceration — all of which directly bear the ugly Clinton mark of neoliberal ideology.
Devon,
I resent being called a shill for Hillary Clinton. For the record, I am a supporter of Bernie.
What is worrisome here, and in your comment, is a willingness to demonize others. The issue here is, after all, not whether Pope Francis supports stem cell science, whether Greenpeace wants to save the whales or even whether Pharma overcharges for drugs. The issue is especially not whether stem cell research is OK by God.
My question really ought to extend beyond biology. I am concerned that many of Bernie’s lofty ideas are not backed up by expert advice on facts.
My concerns about science policy are similar to the questions raised by Paul Krugman and others about the feasibility of many of Bernies’s funding ideas.
The question I asked was simple, who does Bernie speak to about science? Are his stands on climate, health, economics, and energy based on support from scientific experts?
In submitting the post to the listserv, I was very aware of NOT using the listserv to promote anyone’s campaign. If you note there is not even a quote from her campaign. The comments and concerns by Harold Varmus, a Nobel laureate, are especially telling. Having served as head of the National Cancer Institute and the National Institutes of Health under Presidents Obama and Clinton, Harold is hardly a shill for anyone, unless you along wth Bernie’s campaign are wiling to demonize the NIH and the same biotech industry that has extended human life span by five years, blocked the AIDs epidemic, eradicated polio, wiped out the West Guinea worm blindness plague, and cured several cancers.
In contrast, your retort is to refer to a long, boiler plate litany from the Sanders campaign. Most of that has nothing to do with the issue of understanding stem cells. Rather Bernie (or whoever put up his site) acts like the Tea Party, bundling stem cell research with the religious wars over the right to life. Here is one example,
Voted YES on forbidding human cloning for reproduction & medical research.Vote to pass a bill that would forbid human cloning and punish violators with up to 10 years in prison and fines of at least $1 million. The bill would ban human cloning, and any attempts at human cloning, for both reproductive purposes and medical research. Also forbidden is the importing of cloned embryos or products made from them.
Tags: Americanism, Bernie Sanders, Jew, Ongoing Presidential Campaign, Ongoing Presidential Campaign
Posted 04 Apr 2016 by theaveeditor
in The Ave Scene
