sticking to facts

President Barack Obama made his first public appearance since the end of his White House tenure on April 24, speaking at the University of Chicago on the subjects of fostering civic engagement and developing young leaders.

Watching him on stage - so natural and gracious - made us miss those glory days when he was our president and we were secure in our world no matter what we faced because this was the man who had our backs.

Today we march for all those things we formerly took for granted were ours. We march for our freedom. We march for equality. We march for just about everything. And lately we march for science.

Why?

Because the Trump administration has put policies in place that silence federal agencies from publicly discussing climate change and has proposed massive budget cuts to the National Institute of Health, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Department of Energy.

To combat this systemic rejection of the scientific process, tens of thousands of people in over 600 cities on seven continents across the globe came together last Saturday at the March for Science.

After nearly 100 days of watching President Trump respond to any question, no matter the subject, with a rambling screed that somehow links voter fraud to the failing New York Times, it was genuinely jarring to remember what it was like to see a president speak in complete sentences, interact normally with other humans, and demonstrate even a fleeting semblance of self-awareness.

That's why.

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