Health Care, 11 Year Old Girls, and Sex
From the category of “be careful what you ask for 'cause you might get it", comes the story out of the Portland, Maine, whose school system is now dispensing birth control pills to eleven year olds without parental permission or notification. Maine law prohibits the school system from advising parents that their children are having sex, even if it is a felony not to report it the authorities....you figure it out. The only option available to the parents is opt out of the school health care system altogether. So if little Mary is injured, the school won't assist her. On its face, this is the single, dumbest, most irresponsible thing I have ever seen to come out of a school system....EVER.
But it needs to put it context of several other stories that have been in the news as of late. On the one hand, you have the school dispensing birth control to 6th graders, which facilitates sexual activity. On the other hand, you have the school system in McMinnville, Oregon, which filed criminal charges against 12 year old boys for slapping a girl’s butt, and these kids almost got designated as sexual predators for the rest of their lives. What am I missing?
The Youngstown Vindicator’s lead story tonight stated that Youngstown has the 3rd highest attendance in charter schools in the nation. One out of four students in the City of Youngstown attends a charter school.
Then there is SCHIP, the health insurance program for the children of the working poor, an admirable endeavor. President Bush recently vetoed a major expansion of the program to children of families making $80,000.00 per year. Hardly working poor.
How are these stories related. As the Iraq War has faded from the front pages of newspapers as clear progress is now being made, America’s left wing has decided to make health care a centerpiece issue in the upcoming election. The SCHIP battle, using innocent children as pawns in a political debate, is an effort by the Democratic congress to expand government intrusion into our health care system and into the upper, middle class. They want us to get used to it.
We have been down this road once before with the front runner in the Democratic primary. Hillary Clinton, in the early 1990’s, devised a convoluted scheme that included telling doctors what kind of medicine they could practice, and throwing them in jail if they treated patients privately. And we all know that “It Takes a Village” to raise children. Should issues of sex be left to the parents or to the collective...the Village?
The bottom line is that he who pays the piper tells the piper what to play. If the government is going to pick up the tab, they are going to tell you what to do. The Board of Education in Portland, Maine, is just a taste of what will be coming down the pike.
In Portland, it is resulting in a nullification of parental authority, choice and religious principles, even for 11 year olds. After telling these kids that it is perfectly alright to have sex at that age, and providing the means to do it, if a boy slaps a girl’s butt, he will be labeled a sexual predator for life. And it is all OK, because the system, the Village…the Collective, knows what is best for you. Besides, the Village is paying for it.
Translate this into a government run health care system. If this is what happens on the local level, imagine what it will morph into on the national level. Is this really what we want? The Youngstown charter school story says no. Given the choice, and the means by which to do it, most people would opt out of failed, government run programs, be it schools, or anything else.
This election, be careful what you ask for. You may just get it this time around.
But it needs to put it context of several other stories that have been in the news as of late. On the one hand, you have the school dispensing birth control to 6th graders, which facilitates sexual activity. On the other hand, you have the school system in McMinnville, Oregon, which filed criminal charges against 12 year old boys for slapping a girl’s butt, and these kids almost got designated as sexual predators for the rest of their lives. What am I missing?
The Youngstown Vindicator’s lead story tonight stated that Youngstown has the 3rd highest attendance in charter schools in the nation. One out of four students in the City of Youngstown attends a charter school.
Then there is SCHIP, the health insurance program for the children of the working poor, an admirable endeavor. President Bush recently vetoed a major expansion of the program to children of families making $80,000.00 per year. Hardly working poor.
How are these stories related. As the Iraq War has faded from the front pages of newspapers as clear progress is now being made, America’s left wing has decided to make health care a centerpiece issue in the upcoming election. The SCHIP battle, using innocent children as pawns in a political debate, is an effort by the Democratic congress to expand government intrusion into our health care system and into the upper, middle class. They want us to get used to it.
We have been down this road once before with the front runner in the Democratic primary. Hillary Clinton, in the early 1990’s, devised a convoluted scheme that included telling doctors what kind of medicine they could practice, and throwing them in jail if they treated patients privately. And we all know that “It Takes a Village” to raise children. Should issues of sex be left to the parents or to the collective...the Village?
The bottom line is that he who pays the piper tells the piper what to play. If the government is going to pick up the tab, they are going to tell you what to do. The Board of Education in Portland, Maine, is just a taste of what will be coming down the pike.
In Portland, it is resulting in a nullification of parental authority, choice and religious principles, even for 11 year olds. After telling these kids that it is perfectly alright to have sex at that age, and providing the means to do it, if a boy slaps a girl’s butt, he will be labeled a sexual predator for life. And it is all OK, because the system, the Village…the Collective, knows what is best for you. Besides, the Village is paying for it.
Translate this into a government run health care system. If this is what happens on the local level, imagine what it will morph into on the national level. Is this really what we want? The Youngstown charter school story says no. Given the choice, and the means by which to do it, most people would opt out of failed, government run programs, be it schools, or anything else.
This election, be careful what you ask for. You may just get it this time around.
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