There's a Commotion

The thrust of this article is stem-cell research and whether Florida should fund such research. With its potential to cure so many diseases, funding stem cell research should be a no-brainer - which is why the religious right is against it. In fact, they're against using "the brain" altogether.

Two amendments will likely appear on the '08 ballot - one for state funding and the other against it. I found this part of the article most troubling:

The stem-cell questions typify the kinds of polarizing groups that try to amend
their positions into the state Constitution, said Stephen MacNamara, a
communications professor at Florida State University who worked on the campaign
that defeated a gambling ballot initiative in 1994.

"These people tend to be on the fringes; they feel like they have no alternative but this because the Legislature won't listen to them," he said. "It becomes an all-or-nothing, up-or-down, left-or-right approach [to policymaking], and it's not healthy."

Wrong, Stevie.

These people represent the concerns of thousands and thousands of Floridians who have no other voice. Our representatives in Tallahassee certainly aren't listening. Coming together and demanding change through our Constitution is one of the healthiest responses to such apathy. (Voting their asses out of office is yet another.)