UnSpace

If you need proof of the failure of the American school system, look no further than Cindy Sheehan. Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif. wrangled her a seat at the State of the Union address. All Cindy had to do was show up, behave, and look like a mother who'd lost her son to the Iraq war. The camera cut-aways would have been to her, sparing us many of the views of Hillary Clinton. Bush could barely read from the teleprompter as it was. Having her sitting there looking mournful might well have caused him to crack. We'd still be watching the replays of George W. Bush's meltdown.

All she had to do was sit there and behave. That was asking too much of Cindy Sheehan.

Cindy undid her jacket to reveal a shirt that said "“2,245 Dead — How Many More??” When informed that the shirt violated the rules of the Capitol building, she could have covered up. Instead, she got herself arrested and hauled away.

First graders playing checkers have a better grasp of tactics than Cindy Sheehan. Cindy cannot buy a vowel, let alone a clue. She wants to run for political office? The Republicans are salivating like Pavlov's dogs at that thought. Even the ultimate campaign staff couldn't carry her that much. The Republican candidate for mayor of Pittsburgh (which I refer to as the "Witness Protection Program") put up a better fight than Cindy could.

Cindy's a grieving mother. I can sympathize with her situation and her emotion. I feel her son may well have died uselessly because the Iraqi war was poorly prosecuted by the Bush administration. But grief is not a guide to public policy, and grief does not instill the griever with the font of all knowledge.

Cindy made her point a long time ago. She should go home now, because all she's doing is diminishing what she managed to accomplish.

The President realizes that there is a significant problem with science education in this country, and in his State of the Union speech, he proclaimed his intention to do something about it. Since he and his party have caused much of it, fixing the problem is the least he can offer to do.

No Child Left Behind has resulted in The ascension of the ordinary man by forcing schools to teach to the test and abandon the brightest students. Will throwing a bit more money at some advanced placement teachers really correct this? The excesses of the "War on Terror" are chasing away the best and the brightest foreign college and graduate students so that they don't come to the United States to be educated any more or, if they do come here, they do not stay. The battle to install Creationism/ Intelligent Design in our schools instead of science has made science a hot potato that too many students do not wish to be assoicated with. And finally, the disrespect and abuse heaped on scientists who do not find "Republican" facts don't make science an attractive field of study: witness the witch hunt regarding the "hockey stick graph" and the humiliation of the NASA scientist whom they tried to censor.

There's definitely a problem in science education. There was a problem before G.W. Bush entered the White House. He and his party are not the only causes. They've only managed to make a bad thing much worse.