[Peace-discuss] Reponse to Criticism of AWARE?

[David Green]

This column in today's DI clearly deserves a response
reagarding the statement about AWARE. Since I have a
letter in the hopper and wasn't there anyway, I'll
leave it to somebody else.

David


The Daily Illini - Opinions 
Issue: 8/26/05 

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Column: Barack Obama: a falling star
By John Bambenek 

Last week, U.S. Senator Barack Obama, D-Ill., came to
Champaign for a town hall meeting. Having attended it,
there are two perceptions I came away with: Obama is a
brilliant politician and speaker and that
Anti-War/Anti-Racism Effort can't help but be
disruptive and rude at anything they show up to. 

The senator can give a good speech, that's for sure.
He certainly doesn't have the foot-and-mouth problem
that Senator Dick "The Troops are Nazis" Durbin seems
to have. He teaches a valuable lesson for Democrats,
namely, that you can advance your views by methods
other than seething hatred toward Bush and all things
Republican. However, there are several things that the
Senator did get wrong: stem-cell research, Social
Security and education spending. On those three
issues, the Senator displayed either negligence or
deception on the facts.

The stem-cell debate has been dumbed down by the media
and politicians to the point where most of the public
doesn't understand the basic facts of the issue. You
have adult stem cells, and you have embryonic stem
cells. Adult stem cells don't need government funding;
private industry is dumping money into it because
thousands are being cured by adult stem cell
treatments. Embryonic stem cell research (excepting
stem cells in umbilical cord blood) is shunned because
of the ethical dilemmas involved, and the lack of any
discernible progress. Therefore, it requires
government money.

The embryonic stem cell activists would have you
believe that there is no other source of stem cells
and that we must begin treating human life as a crop
to be harvested for parts. They believe that any moral
argument is a repeat of Galileo, the perceived, yet
non-existent, "attack" on science by religion. They
conveniently ignore that adult stem cell therapies
work and embryonic ones don't.  People are walking,
being cured from diseases like Parkinson's and living
better lives because of adult stem cells taken from
fat and other parts of the body. In fact, with
Americans getting larger all the time, you can
consider the supply of adult stem cells limitless.
Either Senator Obama doesn't know this (negligence) or
he is willingly ignoring it (deception). Considering
that there have been Senate hearings that included
testimony from people cured by adult stem cells, it
appears to be the latter.

Senator Obama doesn't peddle the deception that Social
Security is about "intergenerational responsibility"
because it isn't - despite what Professor Leff says.
The 45 percent benefit cuts that organizations like
MoveOn peddle are for people who retire in 2075. Those
individuals are also known as the unborn, and, for
that matter, unconceived. Though it is refreshing to
see the left and their new-found concern for that
demographic.

But Obama says Social Security is not broken. When I
talk to financial planners, they tell me to expect $0
in Social Security benefits. A retirement system that
will not be there when you retire is a problem. Saying
differently is deceptive or, at best, negligent. And
while he has a point in implying that state pensions
won't be available, that's mostly because his party is
running the State Universities Retirement System into
the ground.

Lastly, Senator Obama discussed No Child Left Behind
and the usual line about how President Bush has not
funded it. The simple fact is that there never has
been and never will be a government program that is
"fully funded." Money is like cocaine to a bureaucrat:
they can never get enough. Under Bush, education
spending went up almost 20 percent (even after Sept.
11, 2001, two wars and a recession). The fact is that
states left $17 billion of appropriated federal money
unspent last year.

Senator Obama is a refreshing departure from many of
his hyperventilating colleagues. However, until the
influx of deceptive information stops, intelligent
political discourse and bipartisanship will not be
able to succeed.

John Bambenek is a university employee and a graduate
student. His column appears every Friday. He can be
reached at opinions at dailyillini.com. 


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