An open letter to former President George W. Bush
25 January 2009
Dear Mr. President,
I write to thank you sincerely for your service to the United States. I believe that you had the best interest of the country in your heart. Now that you have left the office, I urge you to help with the healing of the nation.
The United States is in the deepest economic recession since the Great Depression, due to the collapse of its mortgage and credit industries. Millions of people have lost their jobs. The crisis arose because of policies to deregulate mortgages and not to regulate subprime mortgages as collateral for our credit industry. Your support would be helpful for Congress and President Obama to develop bipartisan legislation to regulate mortgages and credit industry.
We are fighting two wars (Afghanistan and Iraq) with no reserves to handle a third conflict. Our enemies know that our troops are tied up in Afghanistan and Iraq. Perhaps this is why Russia so boldly invaded Georgia and bullied Ukraine, why Iran has continued to develop nuclear weapons despite UN sanctions, and why maritime piracy is erupting around the world. Your support of withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq would help our armed forces rebuild and carry out other critical missions.
The U.S. government policies of rendition, detention, and torture have violated the Geneva Convention and weakened our moral position on human rights. Torture is neither necessary nor sufficient to protect us against terrorism. By engaging in torture, we have placed ourselves at the same moral level as terrorists and we are encouraging torture of our soldiers and civilians. Please support the banning of torture by our government.
Finally, your decisions to restrict stem cell research, to veto Congressional legislation twice to allow stem cell research, and to suppress governmental scientists who opposed your environmental and other policies have earned you the reputation of being an anti-science president. You have encouraged public mistrust of science by politicizing it. I hope that you will speak up to restore trust in science again.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Wise Young.
January 26, 2009 at 11:40 pm |
Dr. Young,
Why waste time on a former president who doesn’t care?
Let’s concentrate our time on the current president.
Obama said he is going to make science a priority.
Let him prove it by repealing the ban on federal funding for embryonic
stem cell research. He said he is going to do it but hasn’t done it yet.
What takes him so long?
Action speaks louder than words. I am still waiting…
January 27, 2009 at 1:08 pm |
I wrote the letter because I had posted on the subject in the CareCure Politics Forum, suggesting that people write a farewell letter to President Bush. We should not underestimate how many people still support Bush and the importance of his voice in solving some of the problems that face us today.
January 27, 2009 at 1:21 pm |
Obama has not yet rescinded Bush’s executive order restricting NIH funding of human embryonic stem cells for several reasons. First, this is only the first week of Obama’s presidency. There are rumors that he will rescind the executive order this week or next. Second, Obama said in a CNN interview that he would prefer that Congress passed Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act (SCREA) to establish the legality of human embryonic stem cell research. In this way, it would be the people versus Bush and not just Obama versus Bush on this matter. Third, if Obama were to rescind the executive order, this would take Congress off the hook to pass SCREA. This would be unfortunate. This means that any other president that comes in can just rescind Obama’s executive order. By the way, the executive order is just the president’s interpretation of the the Dickinson Amendment (which is attached to all NIH appropriations, essentially forbidding the harming of any fetus or embryo) and Bush intepreted this to mean no research on embryonic stem cells derived after August 2001 would be funded by NIH. I agree with Obama. The whole issue arose because Congress was not clear and did not act to reverse Bush when he issued in executive order in August 2001. This is Congress’s problem and one that Congress needs to resolve by sending a very clear message that human embryonic stem cells obtained from blastocysts that will be thrown away can be studied with NIH funds. Wise.
January 28, 2009 at 9:44 pm |
I think obama should sign the executive asap.There is no sure thing that congress will pass the stem cell bill again.I will take my chances in 4 yrs that the next predident will not change anything.This science is just to important for people who want to improve their lives. Thank you.
January 28, 2009 at 10:17 pm |
al, you may be right. I keep hearing rumors that he will issue an executive order of stem cells soon. By the way, I meant the Dickey amendment and not the Dickinson Amendment. Wise.
June 23, 2009 at 10:38 pm |
Mr Young, i am so appreciative for all the efforts you are making, and the tons of research you are conducting abroad and domestically, to make the spinal injury cure a reality come true.
Few days ago i received an e-mail from a friend since my daughter is paralyzed and this e-mail was all about how advanced the state of Israel in Stem Cells research as well. Have you looked at their data recently? It might be worth looking at it.
I also would like to ask you professor, if the countries of the world have a common data gathering in Stem Cells research?
I would like to ad that your letter to Ex President Bush is very encouraging and balanced, and i hope a lot of good things will come out of it soon.
Thank you
Mike Kadmiry