The Adler Planetarium
I didn’t expect to question my self-worth as an astronomer while watching the third Presidential debate last night, but that’s what happened.
Sen. McCain’s relentless harping on Sen. Obama for destroying “Joe the Plumber’s” American dream was just too much. Let me tell you about my American dream. It has to do with stars.
I have been studying them my entire life. It began before my earliest memories, but once evident, my interest in everything celestial was supported by my mom, encouraged by my teachers, and bolstered by an elementary school field trip to a planetarium. Nothing special, just a high school in the area that was endowed well enough to have a small dome and an even smaller star projector. If I had to guess, I would say it couldn’t have cost more than $3,000. (And that was in 1986.) But the opportunity to actually see the motion of the planets and stars across the sky was — as the commercial says — priceless.
I was fortunate enough to grow up in a great public school district in Northern Virginia where a field trip to such a high school was possible. For many students both then and now, this may not be the case. This is especially a tragedy for inner city students; those who can’t even see the stars on their own because the skies over their heads are lit day and night by the sun or the ever-increasing electric glow of urban life. The best way these students can get access to the stars is through a museum planetarium that can both educate and inspire. In Chicago, the Adler Planetarium fills this role. And yes, top of the line, robust, professional star projectors cost a pretty penny. About $3 million, as Sen. McCain is so fond of pointing out.
By categorizing this proposed expense (that Sen. Obama supported) as pork, Sen. McCain is belittling my American dream, and the dream of young kids who, after a trip to the Adler, might one day grow up to share my love of the universe. Planetariums such as the Adler are in a unique position to help inspire students to pursue science and math — something our country is in desperate need of as Sen. McCain himself acknowledged in last night’s debate.
I would like to remind Sen. McCain that the American dream comes in all shapes and sizes. Why does Joe the Plumber matter more than Summer the Astronomer? After all, my future observatory is going to require some plumbing.
Photo: Atelier Teee via Flickr
Shepard was an incredibly gracious interview subject. We talked for nearly an hour about the stories in the book—whose protagonists include an executioner during the French Revolution, a soldier in Hadrian’s army, and an engineer at the Chernobyl disaster. Shepard fielded questions from some of our loyal book club members, including Kymm in Barcelona and Seth in Kansas. I asked him about the prevalence of male suffering and ineptitude in his stories (he thinks women have a reason to care about this, too, despite Rebecca in Berlin’s opinions to the contrary). And he spoke compellingly about the writer’s duty to go out in the world and report on what he or she finds. “Part of the project of literature,” says Shepard, “is empathy.”