“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.“- Albert Einstein.

I woke up this morning thinking about science and America, two unholy and unhappy partners.

I saw a man on television tell a reporter that he didn’t believe in science, Covid-19 was a plot to destroy America,  a hoax, and the scientists and doctors were all a part of it.

I’ve been thinking about science a lot.

We all have to walk on our own path; I can’t tell anybody else what to believe. Science is much on my mind these days since science makes it possible for me to write this post from my home late at night, and science just cleared an artery to my heart and made it possible for me to walk up hills again.

And in two weeks, science will attempt to open up another long-closed artery to my heart and give me even more new strength and health. Science is a good friend to my heart, and thus, my life.

Science gave me a new e-bike that will make it possible for me to ride all over my beautiful county; once I get my head straight. Science gave me solar power and a car that gets 41 miles per gallon.

It’s a usual day when it costs me more than $12 to fill up my gas tank. My electric bill last month was $15.43.

Maria and I have begun taking some excursions since our county is opening up steadily and piece by piece. We went on a five-hour journey to do some chores, then to tour the Saratoga Battlefield  Historial Park, then to go and get some new fish and snails for our tank.

It was the longest time away from the farm since March, except for my one night birthday present in Vermont. It felt good. Yesterday we took a short excursion to Mass MoCa to feel a museum around us. I miss movies in a theater very much; I pray I will get a vaccine by next year, and all of us will.

Science is under attack again, as it has been periodically through human beings’ sometimes sad history.  Scientists have often been feared, mistrusted, hung, tortured, ignored, and reviled.

Since scientists have already saved my life a few times, I  owe them nothing but gratitude and appreciation. Isaac Asimov wrote that the saddest aspect of life is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.

And he didn’t live to see the resistance to dealing with the pandemic, which would have exceeded his own great imagination.

I can hardly believe they put a microscopic balloon stent into the artery leading to my heart so I can get enough blood to live and breathe. I can’t even imagine how they figured out how to do this.

A profound and sometimes tragic conflict is underway in America between politicians and scientists.

Like good reporters, scientists are always telling people what they don’t want to hear – stay at home, no parties, close don’t wear masks,  don’t hug grandma.

The late great critic Christopher Hitchens said that that which can be asserted without evidence could be dismissed without evidence. The irony of our time is that that which can be asserted with tons of evidence can repeatedly be dismissed without any evidence.

That is America in 2020, as it was America during the Scopes Monkey Trial early in the 1920’3.  Clarence Darrow, the great defense attorney in the Scopes trial,  was my hero all through my youth.

I am happy he is not alive to see the war on science raging at our government’s highest levels decades after his brilliant defense. What a schizophrenic country. The country that became the proud symbol of science is now it’s most bitter enemy.

To me, scientists are heroes and saviors; I am sad to see them being suppressed and bullied and pushed to the side.

As a kid, I wasn’t riding bikes; I was watching-and re-watching Inherit The Wind, the story of the Scopes Monkey Trail. I so loved that movie and have practically memorized the trial transcript.

In a sweltering July in 1925m America was in another of its hissy fits about religion and science.

The trial was about tossing a young teacher in jail for teaching the Theory of Evolution, by Charles Darwin. It was illegal in Tennessee at the time to each that humans might have descended from apes.

There are teachers in America today who could face jail and persecution for teaching that the coronavirus is real and can kill people.

Science versus Greed and Politics is a bitter issue in many schools, even now. America is putting off its enlightenment. The one percent is making too much money. Nobody will ever look back on this and say it was our finest hour.

To me, the Monkey Trial, as H.L. Mencken dubbed it, was and is a colossal struggle between fervent ignorance and the teachings of science.

We drive cars and big trucks, see doctors, fly planes, purchase air conditioners, freeze food, buy drones, get operations,  without questioning science, but tell somebody to wear a mask.

Where do these people these huge internal combustion machines come from, the sky?

Science suddenly becomes a worthless conspiracy because we don’t like to wear masks or be further inconvenienced. And to be fair, we want to feed our kids.

But crises always bring painful choices. It is apparently against our Constitution to save people’s lives. Thomas Jefferson would want to know that.

This is the story of America, this yin and yang. We are proud of science but fear it. We use it in every part of our lives. We exploit and make money from it, but the minute it challenges us, we cast it aside.

Sometimes we are happy to be racist; sometimes, we are not. We demand the right to be greedy and self-centered. Once upon a time, we loved our beautiful and open country, now we can’t wait to mine and defile it.

I love this country, but it is loaded with trouble and conflict.  We are the world’s most powerful hypocrites.

This morning, I got up before the sun and went outside to take a photo of the sunrise. Yes, I had nothing on but slippers.

I did sit out in the pasture chairs for a few minutes and said a prayer for science and scientists. Thank you, I said, for saving my life and the lives of so many others. I trust you and respect you.

In the middle of this sometimes heartbreaking new struggle, the scientists say we are almost sure to discover shortly that the pandemic is all too real and is preparing to descend upon us again with a vengeance in the coming weeks and months.

In the face of great hostility and scorn, they have found their moral compass and are fighting to tell the truth.

Many of our leaders are jeering at them. I blew science off for many years, and it nearly cost me my heart. I am listening to them now.