How young is too young?

I'm sure you've all heard about it. I meant to blog about it last week, but time got away. I'll be honest, part of my reason for not blogging about it was because I needed to sort out my true feelings. I'm a liberal. I believe in certain freedoms. I believe that every woman has a right to birth control. I believe every woman has a right to determine what is best for her and her body. However, I'm not sure how young is too young.

When a school in Maine decided to start offering birth control pills and the patch to its students, a controversy erupted. My first thought was "IF" it is necessary, it's a good thing. Then I began to think.

These weren't 17 year olds. They weren't even 14. Most of these girls were 11 - 13. Is this appropriate? My mind began to churn.

See, I have an 11 yr old son. Do I want him to have access to birth control? Yes, I would like to know that if he was sexually active(at 11? eeek!) he could get a condom if he needed it. Do I think sex at 11 is acceptable? No way. Do I want a school to just toss my 11 yr old a condom and let him go on his merry way? Absolutely not.

I have an 11 year old. Do I think he is responsible at age 11 to be able to remember to take a pill each day? Absolutely not. Do I think an 11 year old girl is responsible enough? I doubt too many are. I still have to remind the kid to put his homework in his backpack. I don't think he would remember a pill every day.

I did some reading. Was teen and pre-teen pregnancy a big problem at this school in Portland, Maine? No. In actuality, only five students who were treated at this clinic last year reported being sexually active. So why is this so necessary?

How would I feel as a parent if my child was given a prescription without my knowledge? I'd be upset enough if she were 17, but to think my 11 year old was given something like that without my knowledge would be horrible in my imagination. There are so many what ifs.

What if that 11 year old has a horrible, possibly deadly, reaction to the pills and as a parent, you don't know what to tell the doctor treating her because you don't KNOW she's taking the pill?

What if the girl is responsible and takes the pills every day, but her boyfriend has some awful disease--maybe even AIDS. No, she won't get pregnant, but she can still get very sick!

What if the pills are taken sporadically and she thinks she's "safe" but winds up pregnant anyway?

What if we are letting 11 year olds believe they are intellectually mature enough to have sex by giving them pills rather than more education?

What if it was MY kid?

I know quite a bit about the state of Maine. It's a liberal state. Portland is a very progressive city, but is this just too much? Apparently some seem to think so because there's a proposal to allow parents to prohibit the dispensing of birth control to children under 14.

Now, before you think I think that if we give a kid a condom or a pill that they think it's giving them permission to have sex, I don't think that. I know that kids are going to have sex no matter what, but at 11, aren't there more important things for them to think about? I know some parents don't pay attention. Some kids are home for hours alone after school. Still, I think if a child is having sex on a regular basis at 11, there are bigger issues other than just handing out birth control.

I'd much rather see them take those 11 year olds and counsel them. The parents don't have to know. No one needs to know, but if you are going to give them a pill, give them some counseling as well.

After much thought, I think that's what I think.

A first!

Yesterday, I was out shopping and saw my very FIRST Hillary bumper sticker. I realize this might not be a big deal to some of you, but we've just moved to a red state after years in a very blue state, so it was like seeing a friendly face!




Hillary in '08. Suddenly, I don't feel so alone.

To be honest, this state wasn't always red. In fact, it was always blue until the past two elections. I grew up here and was so disappointed to see how things went. The other side used the scare tactics on the people here. If you vote for Gore, he'll take your guns. If you vote for Kerry, you won't be safe.

Hopefully this time around, there will be enough of us with Hillary stickers to keep it from happening AGAIN!

Newt Says No

Newt Gingrich has announced he will NOT run for the Republican nomination. Can we hope this means that he realizes the Republicans don't have a chance in hell to win this one?

Ahhhh...I can hope anyway!

Who cares?

So, Donald Trump thinks Dan Rather is a "loser?" WHO CARES? Someone explain to me why this is "news?"

I was watching CNN today while they spent time on this "story." Why are Donald Trumps opinions of any value? Is it because he has money? Is it because he screams and spouts off loudly? What is it about him?

We don't hear Bill Gates calling people "losers" or any of the nasty things that Donald Trump makes a living off of doing. I wonder why that is. Well, I'll leave that up to you to figure out.

As far as Dan being a "loser," he should feel like he's in good company. The guy with the bad comb-over also called Rosie that at every opportunity. Hang in there, Dan. You're not a loser. Standing up for what you believe in is right. It's the true American way. Hopefully the lawsuit will bring attention to what is going on in this country with our media.

Is it 2007?

Is it 2007? Are we sure about that? Stories like what is going in Louisiana with the Jena Six and also this story out of West Virginia truly make me wonder. It seems that racism is still alive in this country, almost forty years after the death of Martin Luther King.

Don't you wonder why? I wonder how. I wonder how this ignorance still pervades our society. We should be raising our kids to not let race divide. We should be raising them to see everyone as equals--to see us all as one society.

Children do not inherently see differences. This kind of racism--this kind of prejudice--is a learned behavior and parents need to realize that. They need to take responsibility and teach their kids racism is not acceptable. My kids certainly know that.

I'm disgusted that the case in WV is not being prosecuted as a hate crime. How much more hate-filled could something be? She was repeated called the n-word. She was told she was going to be hanged! They actually put a pillowcase over her head and told her they were going to hang her. HOW IS THIS NOT HATE?

The hatred that compells monsters like these to do these things is something I don't understand. I don't have that hatred in me. I can't imagine that hatred. I can't imagine the evilness. It disgusts me. I'm heartbroken for Megan and I'm heart-broken for those children in Jena. Adults have not done their jobs there. Ignorance is rampant.

Is that what it boils down to? Ignorance? If it is, we have a lot of educating to do because I'm starting to think we're all the way back in 1950.

Mothers and Hollywood

Apparently, Patricia Heaton disagreed with Sally Field's acceptance speech and her plea for the end of the war. This is what she had to say about it.

"I've actually become a more violent person since I became a mother," the "Back to You" star told us. "If someone came between me and my kids, they'd be dead meat. So I didn't agree with that particular statement."

Remind me not to schedule any playdates with her kids! What is she missing here? She's missing that women are less likely to use violence to solve problems. There are many studies that support that fact. She's missing that women are more likely to sit down and talk rather than shoot first and ask questions later.

Are some conservative "Christians" so willing to support the bad road this president is taking us down that they turn a blind eye to the truth? Obviously that answer is yes, but to totally deny that mothers would work more towards peace is sad to me. As mothers, we'd be the ones sending our children off to war and I don't think that ANY mother wants to see another mother lose a child.

If you do, you're a heartless mother. What Sally Field said can be taken in more general terms. It was a call for an end to needless deaths and a plea for peace. Doesn't everyone want to see the world at peace? Is that an awful wish to have?

Why was Sally censored?

When Sally Field won her Emmy tonight, she spoke out against the war in Iraq. Unfortunately, Fox cut off her speech. At the end, she said

:"If mothers ruled the world, there wouldn't be any god-damned wars in the first place."

She was cut after "god." Now, one can argue that she swore and the word was censored, but if they were censoring her naughty word, why didn't they simply cut the audio? Why did they totally cut to something that looked like a technical problelm? We CLEARLY saw Katharine Heigel say "SHIT" when her name was announced as a winner. The audio was cut, but you could see what she said. Why didn't they cut to this same shot then? Could it have anything to do with it being FOX? Hmmmm...I don't know. I really don't. I want to think it was because of the word, but I just don't trust Fox at all. You be the judge.