Today, Earth Day, I went down to Grant Park to join the estimated 40,000 people who showed up for the March for Science.
And there were stars. Beaker!
Many of the signs were equally clever. Some of them were pretty obviously political:
Still others were just funny:
I also got a kick out of some of the chants. First, this kind of nerdy looking guy with an electronic microphone tried to lead us in various slogans, but his heart wasn't in it, and the rhythm wasn't quite right. (Although "Get up, get down, Chicago is a science town" was pretty good.) Then a spitfire of a high school girl got the crowd rocking.
Her: "TELL ME WHAT A SCIENTIST LOOKS LIKE!"
Us: "THIS IS WHAT A SCIENTIST LOOKS LIKE!"
(Repeat 3 times)
Her: "TELL ME WHAT DEMOCRACY LOOKS LIKE!"
Us: "THIS IS WHAT DEMOCRACY LOOKS LIKE!"
(X 3)
Her: "TELL ME WHAT THE FUTURE LOOKS LIKE!"
Us: "THIS IS WHAT THE FUTURE LOOKS LIKE!"
(X 3)
Her: "TELL ME WHAT AMERICA LOOKS LIKE!"
Us: "THIS IS WHAT AMERICA LOOKS LIKE!"
(X 3)
And there were stars. Beaker!
Many of the signs were equally clever. Some of them were pretty obviously political:
- Make America THINK again.
- Science is what makes America great.
- I've seen smarter cabinets at IKEA.
- Less invasions, more equations.
- Einstein was a refugee.
- You can't repeal and replace the laws of physics.
- Trump's team are like atoms - they make up everything.
- Don't frack with science.
- Twitler (Trump with Hitler mustache)
- Facts matter.
- Defiance for science.
- We're not resisters. We're transformers.
- I'm with her (image of the globe). (Although come to think of it, that's political, too!)
- Keep the earth clean. It's not Uranus.
- May the forest be with you.
- Love yo mama (image of Earth).
Still others were just funny:
- I don't think you understand the gravity of the situation. (next to an image of Isaac Newton)
- There is no Planet B.
- I am a MAD scientist!
- Ignorance is free. Science must be funded.
- If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.
- I like big brains and I cannot lie. (I also saw lots of yarn caps made to look like naked brains)
- The good thing about science is that it's true whether you believe it or not. - Neil deGrasse Tyson (saw this a bunch of times)
- Marie Curie didn't die for this bullshit.
- Got polio? Me neither. Thank science!
- Science says "I don't know. Let's find out!"
- Science not silence.
- Science is not a matter of opinion.
- Without science, it's just fiction.
- (On baby carriage) This baby is starstuff.
- Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. (attributed to Carl Sagan)
- Evidence is cool.
- Show me the evidence!
- Dinosaurs were big. (Hah!) But I mean, some were Nervous Rex.
I also got a kick out of some of the chants. First, this kind of nerdy looking guy with an electronic microphone tried to lead us in various slogans, but his heart wasn't in it, and the rhythm wasn't quite right. (Although "Get up, get down, Chicago is a science town" was pretty good.) Then a spitfire of a high school girl got the crowd rocking.
Her: "TELL ME WHAT A SCIENTIST LOOKS LIKE!"
Us: "THIS IS WHAT A SCIENTIST LOOKS LIKE!"
(Repeat 3 times)
Her: "TELL ME WHAT DEMOCRACY LOOKS LIKE!"
Us: "THIS IS WHAT DEMOCRACY LOOKS LIKE!"
(X 3)
Her: "TELL ME WHAT THE FUTURE LOOKS LIKE!"
Us: "THIS IS WHAT THE FUTURE LOOKS LIKE!"
(X 3)
Her: "TELL ME WHAT AMERICA LOOKS LIKE!"
Us: "THIS IS WHAT AMERICA LOOKS LIKE!"
(X 3)
When she wrapped it up, we were all yelling and cheering.
In short, kinda fun, and kinda encouraging.
Comments
I find that concerning. I don't "believe" in science or, rather, I try not to. Ideally, science, as I'm sure you know, embraces skepticism, and encourages testing of claims, so that no has to believe.
Practically, of course, we can't know everything ourselves firsthand. We're going to have to take some things on faith and trust. But when we do that too much, we become no better than religious anti-science folks.
I guess I offer all this in part because I want to participate in such events, but not to align myself with people who miss too much of the point of science and veer toward believing that it will always support their beliefs. I welcome replies to this.
I agree with you, and I bet most of the people at that event did, too. Right now, we seem to be awash in the notion that all opinions are equal. But science isn't opinion: it's *tested hypothesis,* and governed by evidence. As such, it is by definition tentative. You never know when the next piece of evidence will blast a hole in the hypothesis, then it has to be abandoned. For some people, that seems entirely too unsettling. The religious right has often used the idea of "faith in science" to justify the argument that science is "secular humanism," a belief system just like Christianity. Then, of course, they demand that Creationism be taught in science classes. But until religion offers testable hypotheses (without requiring you to die first to check them out), and adherents demonstrates the ability to ABANDON the belief system if the evidence contradicts it, it ain't science.