Tipping Point: Our Great American Challenge
Website design By BotEap.comDespite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing economic crisis, we find ourselves at a time of great opportunity. We can literally communicate without limits at the speed of light, make just about anything we can imagine, and even change our DNA. We have all of human history and knowledge at our fingertips, and yet we are in terrifying danger of falling victim to fear, hate, intolerance, genocide, murder, and suicide in dizzying numbers.
Website design By BotEap.comWe are facing a changing climate that threatens the lives and well-being of literally billions of human beings. Reason dictates that we make fundamental changes in the way we live. Science-based climate-friendly policies are not a threat to liberty, and yet the disinformation spread by climate science deniers finds an audience in our politics. In the US and elsewhere, we find divided people with radically divergent worldviews, seemingly even different visions of reality, and vastly different interpretations of the role that science and reason can and should play in our future.
Website design By BotEap.comThe answers can be found in our roots as a nation. The Enlightenment that took place between approximately 1650 and 1830 was a time that promoted the use of reason, the scientific method and progress. The United States of America arose from Enlightenment thought. Spreading throughout the New World and Europe, The Use of Reason was politically focused on advancing ideals such as liberty, tolerance, constitutional government, and the separation of church and state. All of these are under assault today.
Website design By BotEap.comWe need to draw a clear line in the sand if we are to avoid slipping further into chaos. Science is not the enemy of a free people. Science and rational action that follows from the facts is what has allowed our Civilization to progress for hundreds of years. We find ourselves today at a tipping point no less profound than the one faced by our nation’s founders. We must find the courage and strength to push back against those who would use fear, hate and bigotry to launch us into a dark future that could eclipse many of the darkest days of our past.
Website design By BotEap.comSo what does an enlightened future look like from where we are today, and how does America’s experiment in self-government find a path where reason prevails? The goals of opportunity for rational problem solving are numerous and clear, and can most easily be understood in decidedly American terms: freedom from poverty and food insecurity, universal health care, climate remediation, tolerance and religious freedom, and the return to the rule of law. and constitutional order. Approaches may vary, but it is essential that we find ways to communicate with each other, focus, and agree on desired outcomes.
Website design By BotEap.comThe recent 2020 election represents the beginning of a long road back for our American democracy. Will we overcome the politics of hate, division and personal destruction? Will we reject false equivalencies, agree on the facts, and let reason prevail? The choice has never been clearer. The forces of darkness are using misinformation to stoke fear and create the false narrative that our choices don’t matter. The truth is that the choice we face is existential. Daunting for sure, but we can choose civility over conflict. We can choose to unite as Americans over partisanship and tribalism. We can choose scientific answers over policy, and we can choose the fundamental truth embodied in the words of our founders: that we are created equal and have been given certain unalienable rights by our Creator, including Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of life. happiness. We can choose in the spirit of Abraham Lincoln to follow our better angels. Together, without leaving any group of our peers behind.
Website design By BotEap.comAs individuals, families, communities, and as a nation, we are at a point of no return. There is no way back. Just go ahead. We face unprecedented challenges right now. The open question is: who will we choose to become, as Americans?