Let's Win Back Science Funding

for our communities and our kids

Hey Frog Troublers, sorry we skipped a post last Sunday. We were at Pepperfest, sharing pepper jelly and making postcards with neighbors about science and research funding in the upcoming federal budget.

Did you know that North Carolina is one of the states hardest hit by Trump administration cuts to the National Institutes for Health? So far, we’ve lost more than $466 million—about the same amount as New York, even though we have about eight million fewer people. That’s because, even as a reddish-purple Southern state, we punch way above our weight with biomedical research. Our scientists (many based at Duke and Chapel Hill, but also in other universities and nonprofit research centers around the state) study and make important advances in Alzheimer’s research, cancer research, vaccine research, and other fields to help prevent, diagnose, and treat illnesses. Much of their funding comes from the federal government, which has a vested interest in improving the lives of its people and in supporting the development of American and American-based scientists, doctors, and researchers. The National Institutes of Health is the largest funder of biomedical research in the world.

Or, at least, it used to be. The new Trump-proposed budget, which will go into effect October 1 unless we see real courage from our leaders, proposes a 40% cut to the National Institutes of Health, instead prioritizing funding ICE, military occupation of our cities, wars, and tax cuts for billionaires. There are eight billionaires in North Carolina, but there are eleven million people who depend on health care and medical research.

At Pepperfest, we told people that if the current budget gets passed without revision, congressional district 4, which includes parts of Chatham and Wake, and all of Durham and Orange Counties, stands to lose the most research funding of any congressional district in the country. Most people we talked to didn’t know about this—and they were shocked and angered to hear it.

“Please show us you care about us,” one card said.

“It matters to NC now and in our future,” said another.

Kids who stopped by wrote about their desire to study science at our North Carolina universities, ranging in age from a little fella who drew an imagined “lizard school” to a tenth grader who plans to study astrophysics in college.

Many kids already know where they want to go to school:

Here’s Bea’s card:

“Your choice will make a big difference in science education, good or bad,” she wrote. “Please make the right choice.”

Here’s Mamie’s:

AAUP NC members delivered the cards to Thom Tillis’s staff on Thursday—Tillis refused to take meetings with constituents—but we need more people calling and communicating the urgency of this budget demand.

You can—and should—do that, sending a personalized email to your elected officials here, no matter where you live.

Making cards wasn’t all we did last weekend. We also saw Paperhand Puppet Intervention’s new show, The Gift, at UNC’s Forest Theatre. This year’s pageant is about the wisdom of rivers and grandmothers (and featured words and recordings from our friends Jaki Shelton Green and Louise Omoto Kessel). We loved it—especially the beaver puppets and the giant blue whale that made its way into the audience at the end, along with giant illuminated water droplets, which the audience passed hand to hand.

As the whale processed up the aisle, Harriet whispered to me, “Every single kid looks happy.”

There’s one more weekend to see The Gift in Chapel Hill. Truly recommend!

How is your weekend going, Frog Troublers? Hope you’re hanging in there.

We’re planning on a river splash and a visit to Ellen’s two sweet rescue dogs today. Lots of love and solidarity from us.