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In less than a year, the Trump administration has done more damage to science and democracy than any administration in our history. They’ve closed entire agencies, frozen billions of dollars essential to research and public health funding and fired or otherwise pushed out hundreds of thousands of dedicated civil servants. They’ve gutted pollution standards, lied about climate science, and boosted fossil-fuel profits at the expense of people, wildlife, and our environment.
They’ve also made changes to hundreds of public health, safety, and environmental rules without public input — even when required by law. Like most authoritarian leaderships, they want to be the sole source of truth — and know that independent science threatens that power.
While we clearly need to defend science at the national level, we also need to tell our state officials, including Gov. Mike DeWine, to follow the best available science in policymaking. America’s Founders included promoting “the progress of Science” in the Constitution. They knew its value for our quality of life and international competitiveness. So, let’s defend it and advocate for it at every level, local, state, and national!
Wendy A. Turrell,
Akron
