Last night at the presidential debate, John McCain said something that really bothered me. It wasn't the "that guy" comment or anything else they've been talking about on CNN all day. This was the comment:
He voted for nearly a billion dollars in pork barrel earmark projects, including, by the way, $3 million for an overhead projector at a planetarium in Chicago, Illinois. My friends, do we need to spend that kind of money?Here is a picture of the "overhead projector" he was talking about:
When McCain said $3M for an overhead projector, I bet you thought of this:
Clearly that would have been a huge waste of money, but since we're talking about replacing a 40 year old planetarium projection system, I think it's an amazing way to spend that money.
Both candidates have spent an enormous amount of time talking about how important it is that the US lead the way on finding new ways to harness and capture renewable energy sources. The only way we're going to be able to do that is with scientists and engineers. A big part of getting kids to get into math and science fields is by getting them excited by those fields when they're young -- through field trips with school. A planetarium can be a wonderful way to do that. $3M is a very reasonable investment to get hundreds of thousands of Chicago kids interested in science.
Here is a comment (PDF) directly from the Adler Plantarium.
