Directed Anger

So, at the end of the last post I noted that it was stupid to get angry at some stranger in a bar over the science funding situation in the USA – and there had to be a better place to direct it.

Well, for a small start, I just sent $250 off to Bill Foster’s campaign. He is an ex Fermilab guy. I interacted with him back when the particle physics community was trying to decide linear collider or something else – he had some novel ideas for accelerators.

I like his “Meet Bill” sentence:

Bill Foster is a scientist, a successful businessman, and the father of two children raised in the Fox Valley. He lives in Geneva and has lived and worked in the tri-cities for most of his adult life, arriving in the Fox Valley in 1984 to raise his family and to work at Fermilab.

His national politics sound (from his web site) pretty standard democrat. And I’m sure that is how most of his votes will be decided – all politics is local, as they say. But that isn’t why I’m supporting him. The fifth word in his intro is “scientist.” That is why I am supporting him.

I’m under no illusions. One junior congressman from Illinois is not going to change the conversation. My hope is that he will at least raise the level of conversation on the hill when it comes to science issues. My hope is that it will be one of his core issues and that he will eventually become to be seen as an expert on science policy in the congress. There are so many issues that our congress has to deal with there is no way any single member can be expert in all of them – one member will often seek another’s advice when they are trying to decide on a bill that is not in their area of expertise. I hope Bill is around long enough and builds a reputation and becomes a go-to guy for science and research policy.

At the very least he will know how to talk to the community the next time we are screwed.

At any rate – good luck Bill.

Feeling a bit better. Now, need to find some other places to redirect my anger. 🙂 BTW – this is the first time in my life I have every donated money to a political campaign. Took 41 years!