"Congress is breaking my heart!"

[medeak]

received from math whiz son who rarely emails so when he does it's important!

Have you heard about the James Webb Space Telescope? It's pretty much the most awesome thing humans are building at the moment. Don't believe me? Let my friend Hank Green explain why. This telescope is the only thing that could console me after i heard the Hubble was being decommissioned and it's my last sliver of hope that something of the America that does things "not because they were easy, but because they are hard" still exists.

Last week it's massive mirrors were finished being polished, which is the most delicate step in the process. Over all it's halfway done, having 3 billion of it's projected 6.5 billion dollar cost spent. And this morning I found out it's on the Republican's chopping block. They'd kill it now, waste all the money we've spent on it so far, and leave the scientific breakthroughs to other countries where all of our best scientists happen to be going.

This is a trend. I'm sure most of you have heard about Europe's Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the greatest atom smasher in the history of atom smashers. Well we had a project called the Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) that was canceled in the 90's. It would have been over three times the size of the LHC and would have been finished ten to fifteen years earlier. Keep in mind that when it comes to atom smashers bigger is largely better. We could have already uncovered the scientific breakthroughs the LHC hopes to make and would have attracted the world's best and brightest to our shores. But we didn't, Congress canceled it halfway through. And now Europe's doing it instead.

Science is one of the pillars our country's dwindling dominance was built on. We led the industrial revolution, split the atom, and went to the moon. None of these things were cheap, and none of the new science will be cheap, but it's worth it. Doing these big projects creates jobs, invents new technologies, attracts the best minds in the world, inspires the youth, and enriches us all. It's worth the money and compaired to what we spend on defense it's peanuts. Please contact your Representative. It takes a couple of minutes, all you need to say is "don't cut the James Webb Space Telescope's funding" or something similar. While you're at it give your Senators a heads up in case it passes the house. The suits need to know that people care about this.

Thank you all!

[givemebackmycountry]

1. Sorry Charlie. We can't do that shit anymore.

Corporate CEO's need to get their bonuses, and Exxon-Mobil has to make 5 million an hour in profits.
What are you a fucking socialist communist?

:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

[spin]

2. I guess it is far more important to fight wars and bail out bankers and Wall Street ...

after all our representatives have to make sure that the people who bought and own them are happy.

[Kablooie]

3. YES! Let other countries advance the dreams of mankind ...

The United States of America will proudly proclaim that it counted it's pennies!

YEAH!

[medeak]

4. 5 awesome things about Web telescope

cute vid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihpNNBmJypE

[YankeyMCC]

5. "Decrease the suck and Increase the Awsome"

Fantastic!

[medeak]

6. 2000 jobs ended with termination

here is Senator Mikulski statement:
http://mikulski.senate.gov/media/pressrelease/7-7-2011-1.cfm

[shireen]

7. i'd eventually be one of those terminated people if JWST is cancelled

I'm currently working on Hubble -- they had planned to gradually move Hubble people to JWST as one telescope ramps down, and the other ramps up. If JWST is cancelled, I'm out of a job in a few years.

There is tremendous technical and scientific talent at work in projects like JWST. It is very innovative challenging pushing-the-envelope science and engineering. It's not just about discovery and exploration, there are intangible benefits that permeate society, like inspiring new generations of scientists and engineers, technological spin-offs, widening our perspective ....

We need to keep our collective minds stimulated, dreaming of, and reaching new scientific and technical goals in exploration and discovery. It's one of the things that brings out the best in what humans can accomplish.

[YankeyMCC]

8. Not just inspiration

actively engaged. Once we stimulate the imaginations and intellect of people like yourself were will they go if we don't continue to strive to know our universe?

Increasingly not America if the Republican ethic on how to prioritize public funds continues to win out.

[medeak]

9. thank you

such moving post. You exemplify the best of what we hoped to be.

[Orsino]

10. Scientific research funding is being transferred directly...

...to building higher walls around the castles of American nobility.

[gtar100]

11. Somebody on Wall Street needs another Porsche. How can you be so selfish?

Seriously, where are your priorities?
:sarcasm: