Our studies of physics can give you deep insights into the workings of nature; you can learn problem solving skills whose application is not limited to physics and which can serve you well in your career and life. In physics as in other sciences we learn to be skeptics. Scientists ask questions such as, "How do you know? What evidence supports your claims? What is your reasoning?"

The study of physics is challenging and exciting. Personally, I look forward to being in class helping you come to grips with the challenges and to understand the principles of physics. As important as I think your study of physics is, I feel obliged in some way to open the door for discussion of topics which, ultimately, are much more important than physics. The fate of our planet, our society and our government concern me greatly. Decisions we make, or don't make, today will have profound and lasting consequences.

Global warming is an issue about which the only scientific controversy has to do with how bad it will be, yet the federal government has done nothing to come to grips with the potentially devastating consequences and most of the media play up the "controversy" where none exits . This winter in Physics 122 we will talk briefly about some of the science of global climate but the most important thing - public policy to mitigate the problem - is beyond the purview of the course. In Science Ed 370, Science and Society, we will talk about both the science and policy.

Public policies on other environmental issues - endangered species, management of our National Forests and Parks, clean air and clean water - are all in a state of flux with major and controversial changes either already accomplished or contemplated.

I could make a long list of specific topics which I think are of major importance but here is not the place, rather, I want to raise issues about how major public policy decisions are made in the United States and how our government functions. All of my life I have had an idealistic view about our federal government and the Constitution of the United States. Our founding fathers, fearful of the tyranny of the kings and despots who dominated history up to that point, purposefully built an awkward and cumbersome structure to govern our country in order to make it difficult for power to be concentrated in the hands of an individual or small group of people. The three branches of the federal government are part of the system of checks and balances intended to limit power. Today, with a compliant Congress and an increasingly partisan judiciary, political power is being concentrated in the person of the President.

The most important limit on power is the power of the people as educated, well-informed voters. Many of us rely on television, radio or newspapers to know what is going on in the world. Judicious use of the internet shows one pretty quickly that the main stream media give a very limited view of current events. Although I religiously read the Seattle PI and a number of weekly and monthly journals a site that I visit daily for headlines and opinion from around the world is Common Dreams. Other well-respected alternative media are listed there. You will see immediately if you visit any of these sites that they would be labeled liberal by those who like to pin easy names on things. I also read The Economist, an international publication that no one would call liberal but where I find a much clearer view of U.S. and world politics.

Now, it is seductively easy just to let the world turn without thinking about these things but, as educated citizens of what we like to think of as the greatest country on earth, we have the heavy responsibility to participate actively and knowledgeably in our democratic government.

At the same time our forebears established the structure of government, they sought to guarantee important rights of the individual. One of these, the right to habeus corpus, was included in the original Constitution. This fundamental right, essentially not to be imprisoned arbitrarily, has a long history in English common law stemming from the Magna Carta. Other important individual rights are contained in the first ten Amendments to the Constitution known as the Bill of Rights.

It has long been understood that the test of these rights is their application to the least deserving among us, thus, in protecting our civil rights, we have said that it is better for ten guilty men to go free than for one innocent man to be condemned. Today, when I hear people say about wire-tapping or other intrusions into our individual privacy that, if you've done nothing wrong you have nothing to worry about, I cringe. When anyone can be imprisoned with no public hearing, with no legal representation, without even being told what crime they are guilty of, we are all in danger. If this seems a remote possibility consider what happened to Maher Arar or to The Innocent Man at Guantanamo.

When I first wrote this letter our President and Congress were debating the interpretation of the Geneva Convention. The Convention is an International Treaty which has been ratified by our Congress and thus, according to our Constitution, is the "supreme Law of the Land" having the same weight in law as the Constitution itself. Here is a legal commentary about the Geneva Convention and our Constitution. Common Article 3, which is being described as vague, seems pretty clear to me. Please read it for yourself. (In November, 2006 Congress, at the President's urging, passed the Military Commissions Act, a manifestly un-Constitutional elimination of habeus corpus which, in October 2007, remains law.)

Today (October 2007) we should all be very concerned about the possibility of an attack by the United States on Iran. Whatever threat there might be to the United States posed by Iran is inconsequential compared to the likely global consequences of a military attack on Iranian soil. I urge you to learn about Iran, about its nuclear program and about its place in Middle Eastern politics and the world of Islam.

You will see links to several essays on my homepage. I will change or add to those links as I am impelled by current events or forceful comment. They are more or less random selections of statements which seem to me to be particularly important. I hope you will take the time to read them as well.