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@ Krysti
Yes. I realize that Palin is not going to be president, but she will be leading Senate which is responsible for writing amending and ultimately has final say on what makes it into law. Many of the most well known laws passed by the conservative Senate in Bush’s first 4 years, (Patriot Act, NCLB, Etc.) are broken. You’d be hard pressed to find a Senator or congressman who actually read the bills in their entirety. The Patriot act (Yeah who’s not for Patriotism?!) and NCLB (No one wants their kids left behind!) have good names, but in reality PL 107-56 and PL 107-110 (Their real names) are lost in the wake of their colloquial names and their true intentions were never really made clear.
Moving on..
My personal views, which I do not try to press upon anyone, are that Sex Education should be taught in an environment like a school because most parents will pussyfoot around the situation and ultimately fail because A: the family has good strong moral values and the parents will trust the child without question or B: The parents are realists and will undoubtedly fore go the responsibility because “They’re going to do it anyway” ..And like you said.. they will.. But when schools give students a choice and say, “It’s best to wait until you’re grown up, but until then use a rubber and the pill.” They’re acting with a voice of authority and expertise on the subject.
Next topic.
I personally believe that a woman (or young woman) has the right to choose her own beliefs. Pro choice is NOT the same thing as pro-Death as some members of the Christian right believe. I’m not a woman so I will never have to choose, nor would i tell my sister/wife/daughter “You have to have this baby,” nor would I say “You know, you can abort and not worry about it.” My sentence would look more like this, “You do what you think is right and I will support you.”
Adam,
I see your point about how Palin would be leading the Senate, but she does not have the ultimate final say. The Senate as a whole has a vote. She may end up being a deciding vote, but hey, those are the breaks of democracy. As for the Senators and Congressmen who don’t actually read the bills, it was the people that voted them into office.
As for the sex education. I think there comes a point where we as a people rely too heavily on our school systems to teach what should be taught at home. I would even bet a lot of teachers would agree with me here. While I believe abstinance and the facts should be taught in school, I believe sex education should begin and end at home. If ones family values are such that they cannot have a completely open discussion on any topic with their child, then maybe they should not be having children. That or should have been parents in the 50′s, not now. Parents have obligations to their children. They are their child’s first teacher. Just like they provide their children with immunizations, food, and shelter, they should provide open conversation of todays issues and birth control. (I know Catholics and some others will disagree, but we are talking about protecting our kids!)
We agree on the issue of choice. I am and always have been pro-choice. I also fully support parental notification for girls under age 18, and wish same would be passed into law. We are talking serious surgery where things have been known to go wrong. If my underage child were having an abortion and something went wrong, how would I know how to help her?
Further, I wish abortion was not used as a form of birth control for underage girls, which unfortunately is the case in some instances. A lot of girls don’t always think about preventative birth control, keeping abortion in their mind as an option if they should happen to get pregnant. Hence why I think parents should be the ones to provide birth control and why I think there should be parental notification laws. If young girls thought that their parents would be notified, they may just keep their legs shut!
(Sorry response took so long. Had to get dinner for the family and kids.)
Krysti,
Re: Sex Ed in school does not have to mean birth control. it is an education about how the reproductive system works, the consequences of unprotectes sex- pregnency,STDs and AIDS- Your children are lucky to have a parent that will teach them about those things. What about the ones who don’t?
Re: Roe v Wade You might want to look into how many Supreme Court justices are about to retire. With McCain/Palin in office for the next 4 years the replacements will ultimately have the power to change RoevWade. Do you really want them selected by McCain and Palin? And what if McCain is out of the picture? Do you want Palin to do it?
Just some random thoughts…
I totally agree with the fact that congressmen should be changed as frequently as one’s underpants, but ballots can be overwhelming. People may have an OK idea of what is going on on that piece of paper, but they don’t really… More on this in my next full post.
Sex education in my high-school was a joke. I would much rather they not teach it than what we were taught in Health class. Childbirth videos and pictures of gonorrhea are not sex education.. They’re scare tactics… Sex education is such a subject that it requires proper education in order to teach. I think that people who went to college and earned a degree in a certain subject are MUCH more qualified to teach than parents who think that schools are too evil to send their children to OR believe that the responsibility to educate their offspring in ANY subject (Math, science, sex, etc.) belongs to the parent.
In any given medical procedure I think that informed consent is essential in the process. My Psych background is kicking in here. Informed consent is for adults who can choose to give or withhold consent after being informed of the risks. “Adults” is the operative word here. Even though level of maturity varies from person to person the law draws a clean line… 18 and any person under that legally requires parental consent. That being said. I don’t think someone can claim maturity until at least age 30… I know I can’t.
Ooooh, people throwing down.
@Krysti – I absolutely agree that parents need to have a more active role in their child’s education. Sex education and otherwise. That said, sex education should be better taught in schools also–biology, abstinence, and prevention. Schools can say “this is what it is” and parents can discuss the specifics with their children.
(And I love the breast cancer button.)
@Jackie – McCain-Palin would have a difficult time overturning Roe v. Wade even with an entirely hand-picked Court.
@Adam – Ballots can be overwhelming, but as a Congressman (Congress-person?), that’s the job–know what is going on and vote for the side that will help their constituents the most. If he is unable to understand the bill–the specifics, not just the gist of things–then he has no business sitting in Congress.
If a surgeon makes a mistake and maims someone, we don’t let her off because she has a difficult job, we hold her responsible. Not holding our representatives responsible because “It’s a hard job” is one of the reasons the government is a nightmare. (The other is apathy, but I’ll get to that later.)
Jackie, It is unfortunate that not all parents are as open with their kids as I am. I am not disagreeing that sex education has some place in schools. I just disagree with those (parents) that rely on the schools to teach it without further discussion at home. And since schools cannot prescribe birth control or hand out condoms, the kids who aren’t able to talk with their parents are only getting basic information anyway, no real protection other than scare tactics.
I see your point about the Supreme Court Justices. however, Roe v. Wade has been decided on since 1973. No one has had the power to change it 34 years. Not to mention, Article II of the Constitution only gives the President power to nominate justices, who are then appointed “by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate.” So, ultimately, the decision is not just in McCain’s and/or Palin’s hands.
Adam, I agree that sex education in schools rely enormously on scare tactics. As for home schooling, I think that choice should be left to the parents. While I agree that not all homeschoolers are qualified to do so (I know I am not), homeschoolers must pass certain state tests to continue to be homeschooled. I am not an expert in this area, but know many parents that do home school and they are required to provide lesson plans and the like, just like the public school teachers. I happen to live in “the home-school capital” where there are co-ops of home-school parents that take turns teaching each others kids. Almost like high-school where they “switch classes”. There is a college in our town that consists primarily of home-schooled kids. While I think these kids miss out on certain social experiences (although this is getting better with home-school football teams, etc.) , they all seem to be well-educated and good members of society. Not to mention, I haven’t seen any of the girls pregnant.
I am inclined to agree with you about informed consent and that of maturity levels. At 37, I still find myself in situations where I might be a bit immature.
@ Shawn…. I am inclined to agree with you (#5). Thanks for the props on the button. I must admit, it stirs things up with hard-core conservatices.
Adam, your post on Guide to Voting, brought up another topic where I am interested to hear your opinion. Instead of garble that thread (btw, I find that to be a great post), I came here.
What do you think of people who do not exercise their right to vote?
When those same people say they didn’t vote because they didn’t like either (GOP or DEM) candidate, what would your response to them be?
I can sympathize with the pro-life movement’s views on abortion, but banning abortion even in cases of rape and incest is too extremist, especially when a sounding majority of Americans support abortion rights.
While people should have a pretty good idea what’s in store for them if they’re having unprotected sex or sex with improper protection, nobody ever plans to get raped or be the victim of incest. In the U.S., someone gets raped every 6 minutes.To dismiss the idea that a woman who has been a victim of rape or incest cannot have a choice is improper.
Talk about Republicans with their idea of small government and how they seek to prevent the govt. from meddling with people’s daily lives. A bunch of hogwash. The ideological problems the GOP faces are because they keep trying to work in 1980s Reaganism into the 21st century world. Even today, pro-choice Republicans like Tom Ridge are ostracized by the party.
@ Krysti – I’m a realist.. I know that we’ll never see a day when voter turnout will be drasically over 50%. It hasn’t been at 60% or higher since 1968 and about 2/3rds that in a non-presidential election year. Its been hovering right around the 50-55% mark give or take a point or two since the 70s. But my personal opinion is that if you don’t vote you don’t have the right to bitch about elected officials or policy changes. When I hear someone complaining about Bush, or the so called “do-nothing” congress I ask them if they voted, and if they say no then I tell them not to bitch.
When someone says they’d wavering on not voting than vote for one candidate or another I would ask them if they’re registered or if they’ve voted in the past if either answer is no, refer to the last paragraph, if the answer is yes, I would tell them to pick out the issue they feel deserves the most change (and let’s face it elections, are about change. Change in leaders and policy.”) and vote accordingly. If they really choose not to vote for one or another, then I’d tell them not to vote and then see paragraph 1.
@ Aung
In the eyes of the furthest right wing people not having an opinion of abortion is the same as being pro-choice and the last thing I heard was that McCain chooses not to take a side, he is personally pro-life, but he doesn’t make an issue because he chooses (keyword) not to.
@Adam….You and I are on the same page on this.
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