From: murph@buscard.fidonet.org (Brian Murphy)
Newsgroups: ne.politics
Subject: Sex ed in school
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 92 13:11:59 EDT
Organization: The Business Card (BBS), Lawrence, MA - Data: 508-682-5329

Mr. Gordon Linoff, in debating the bible-thumpers from his pro-choice 
position punched some hot buttons!  Let's mix it up:

"Use your efforts to stop the need for abortion, such as supporting sex 
education programs in school.  Use your efforts to keep babies alive once 
they are born; in Boston, black babies are three times more likely to die 
in the first year than white babies.  Use your efforts to provide medical 
care for pregnant women.  Use your efforts to provide homes for youth in 
foster care or minority children, who are not in high demand like white 
babies.  Then come back and tell me that you are `pro-life.'"

He, of course, is quite right on the idea but in how to "support" his 
various efforts is where the Right and the Left disagree.  He doesn't say 
but I'm sure he doesn't mean "support" as putting a bumper sticker on his 
car that reads "I'm proud my child learned about sex in school."

I'm only guessing but I think it's safe to say that he'd like to see our 
government, that's you and me, folks, pay for all of this supporting.

THIS is where I'd like to clarify my position on Cal Thomas' article 
where I mentioned that if I'm in the majority, I should be able to 
"enforce" my views on the minority.  Someone suggested that I'm implying 
that I'd have the cops bust single-parents, gays, you know the regular 
line-up, right?

That, of course, is extreme.  As a voter in a majority, I'd not cast a 
vote in favor of funding sex education in school, universal medical care, 
foster care subsidies, or any other program that wouldn't be in the (I 
know you were waiting for this) "Ozzie and Harriet" mold of "family 
values."

You see, I'd not be out there hitting "them" with sticks or pummeling 
them with my fists.  I'd not call out the military to purge the streets 
of "them."  I'd simply not encourage 'em by paying for behavior that I 
believe to be Not a Good Idea.

Sex education in school is my favorite and a good case against it can be 
made on many fronts not the least of which is that it simply doesn't 
belong there.  Schools, funded with my tax dollars, should be teaching 
the basics understood as the Three Rs.  Schools, the K-12 grades, have no 
business mucking around in music, industrial arts, home economics, 
physical education, and SEX EDUCATION.

Man, whose bright idea was it that the schools should be doing all this?  
Whatever happened to your mother insisting you take piano lessons?  What 
happened to apprenticeships to learn a trade?  Can't your mother teach 
you how to cook?  Are kids so lazy that they need the discipline of 
school to get them to exercise?  Am I so old that I didn't know that 
sandlot baseball has fallen out of favor?  <sigh>

The schools, the government, is taking the place of the family and that's 
not a good thing.  It has now gone so far as to teach our children about 
sex - that wonderful experience that used to be reserved for our parents 
to teach.  While doing so, they'd also impart the morals that MUST go 
along with it.

Schools are simply not equipped to teach morals.  In the antiseptic 
environment that the government must provide, it cannot delve into the 
morals that usually come from a religious belief.  In peer pressured 
filled environment of school, experimenting with sex is more accepted at 
earlier and earlier ages.

Do "girl germs" still exist as we boys used to call them in the 
schoolyard anytime one would brush against the other?

Probably not.  I do believe that they've been replaced by "girl juices," 
something desirable to immerse a curious boy in - a boy not taught in the
loving environment of a secure family with a sound basis in common
sense and morals grounded in a religious belief.

The government is generously subsidizing anything that, subjectively, is 
a Wonderful Idea but in the larger picture, is degrading society.  THIS 
is why there must be some sort of standards (the Left's code phrase is 
"role model") set to which we should all aspire.

If you live in a city and walk around, you might notice more young kids 
begging for a quarter for nothing more than to play a video game.  I 
contend this is caused by the liberal laws that allow bums (that's right, 
I don't use the Left code: "homeless") to sleep or panhandle anywhere 
they damned well please.  Does anyone remember the shame it used to be to 
have to beg for your meal?  Not anymore; the government subsidizes 
"homeless shelters."

Does anyone remember the shame you'd feel for accepting subsidized school 
lunches?  Now, the kids and parents play the system to such a degree 
where kids paying their own way are looked upon as stupid.  It's gotten 
so bad that it's now called an "entitlement!"  Get it?  You're ENTITLED 
to this free money!  It's yours, here, take it!

At such a young age, we're teaching our kids that the government will 
provide - we don't NEED a family.  We're ENTITLED to expect a helping 
hand and that we needn't take responsibility for our own blunders.

I believe the Right's answer to Mr. Linoff's plea to "support" his 
various concerns about unwanted pregnancies, unwanted children, or how to 
minimize these conditions is the correct answer.  The Right will suggest 
we remove sex education from school, we not distribute condoms therein, 
and that we leave the teaching of morals where it more properly belongs - 
within the environment of a caring, loving family - which family ideally 
consists of two parents of the opposite sex, thank you.

Now, then, I understand that the pendulum has swung to the Left where the 
Left still believes in Utopia and that there is no consequences of 
stupidity - things like getting pregnant while not married.  I contend 
that within a generation, a society led by the Right would quickly make 
them understand that the government will not be so quick to ride to the 
rescue by making their baby magically disappear.  At that point, they 
might take responsibility for preventing it in the first place without 
the government's or school's prodding.

                                - - - Murph

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