I had a topic for a blog entry all picked out. I was going to write about how North Dakota State University (NDSU) recently closed their Center for Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE). This research facility was championed for a long time by Sen. Byron Dorgan and had received over the years nearly $140 million in federal funds. It was closed as “part of the natural evolution” of the university, a simple excuse that both Dorgan and I find, well, insanely dumb. For years I have argued that NDSU has transcended, has grown, from it’s farm school roots into a premier research school in the northern plains. No one really knows why CNSE has been closed, but apparently I might have been mistaken. NDSU has forsaken an incredible facility, an incredible opportunity, to conduct important science. I guess when you have a big time football program nothing else matters. Sen. Dorgan wrote a letter to the Fargo Forum and it posted yesterday:
http://www.inforum.com/letters/3893311-letter-major-research-opportunity-lost-ndsu-north-dakota
Anyway, that was my topic for at least three or four paragraphs.
And then I started seeing reports of another mass shooting, this time in San Bernardino, CA. One or more masked gunmen, heavily armed, stormed into a office complex housing an organization that aids disabled people, and starting shooting. At least 14 people are dead as I write this, and more importantly, the gunmen made a clean getaway. It is far to early to start talking about the why, as we still pick up the pieces of the what and try to find the who. The fact there was multiple attackers, that they had a plan to escape, points to an organized mission. Either a targeted crime, or possibly an act of terror.
Once again we are confronted with the specter of sick violence on our own shores. When is enough, enough? Why have we come to accept this? Why are we not marching on the Capital, demanding that our reps do their job and look out for our general welfare, which certainly involves keep the streets safe?
Other countries act swiftly when mass murder comes to their lands. They clamp down with tough laws. They sweep the lands not only for the horrible people that commit these acts, but the tools they commit them with. We, we do nothing.
That is a common theme the last decade of the USA. As long as the markets are strong and profits are rising, we do nothing to actually make things better for the common human in our country.
I do have hope. My children are smart, they are dedicated to making their lives and the world around them better, at least they seem to me to be on that track. Many millennials are NOT the lazy, give me everything on a silver platter or my mom will call to complain on my behalf a-holes they are made out to be. In fact, most of this up and coming younger generation (and the ones right behind them) are the most aware of the world and its needs of anyone since…well, I can’t compare them to anyone. Even high school students are aware of the world and the problems that await them in ways I never was. If they are blaming us for our actions (or lack of actions), they are, so far, keeping that justifiable opinion to themselves. They are a new greatest generation in some ways.
I just hope we leave them a country, and a world, to repair and restore to greatness. We, the current owners of our world and civilization, are out of time to act. We either fix things now, make the sacrifices we need to make, or risk it all. Or maybe the best thing we might be able to do is to step aside, get out of their way, and let them, the next generation, take the next steps.