So I haven’t posted in a while, and though there are so many other things I could, and probably should write about, I had to make a quick comment on a link that I noticed while browsing facebook today. It seems that in an effort to save Virginians money by enforcing a law which is aimed at fighting taxpayer fraud, Virginia’s new attorney general has decided that grants which were given to a research professor at the University of Virginia to study global warming are indeed fraudulent.
I try as hard as I can to be independent on political matters. Not that I don’t have opinions, anyone who knows me knows I have strong opinions, but I am well aware that there are excellent men and women on both sides of the aisle. I often respect the beliefs of people who I don’t agree with, because I know that they have spent time studying and forming their opinion. Personally, I am pro-life, in a I hate abortion, the death penalty, and war kind of way. I am for small government, in an entitlement programs wouldn’t be necessary if the church did its job kind of way. I am opposed to any type of harassment or display of injustice, regardless of its basis, sexuality, race, socio-economic standing, etc. I like the idea of being energy independent, and I like the idea of charter schools. I believe we should try to leave the world a better place for our children.
I may not be a lawyer, but according to the brief article found here: http://www.virginia.edu/uvatoday/newsRelease.php?id=12260, our Commonwealth’s Attorney General is under the impression that the state law against fraud applies to federal funds, and that it is the job of the government to decide what research is worthwhile, and what research is a waste of taxpayers money. Either that, or our Attorney General is more interested in making a political statement about what he believes, than about actually saving taxpayers money. Though I do not know all of the facts, it aggravates me to know that the University of Virginia, a well respected school which is today only about 8% funded by the General Assembly, now has to spend funds in order to defend itself against the government which is supposed to support and enable it to educate the people of this state.
I do not write this in support of global warming, the object of the research funded by these grants, though I absolutely believe that humans have an impact on their environment, and that this impact can be negative. I write this in support of the freedom of ideas. If today, in a government led by Anglo Saxon “christians”, which is the group to which I “belong”, can legislate what we think, then what will happen in 50 years when the majority of Americans are not “christian”, or Anglo Saxon? Will our government then begin to legislate that an individual cannot pray quietly by themselves in public? In school? What is worse is that as a follower of Christ, I now have to dissociate the behavior of politicians who are supposedly courting the “christian” conservative base of the Republican party with “christians”, and with Christ. So I don’t mind someone doing the work of trying to help our taxpayers avoid fraud, though I think this rarely occurs on the state level, but please, do so with some intent to win back our taxpayers’ money, and not by attacking our educational institutions’ ability to decide what to research. As a student, they did allow me to choose which classes to take.
I’m going to get down off my soap box now.
