The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, July 18, 1986, Image 2

Texas A&M Newspaper Collection

The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, July 18, 1986, Image 2

Newspaper Page Texti d.r\ he Battalion/Friday, July 18, 1986 ' r ' : ' Sex education promotes awareness, not promiscuity Since its con ception as a solu tion to the prob lem of teen-age p r egnancies, church and par ent groups have been relentlessly resisting sexual education pro grams in schools. These advocates Michelle Rowe of naivety say teaching children about sex encourages promiscuity and leads to increased teen pregnancy, abortions and venereal disease. Children today — by no fault of their own — are exposed to sex more than their parents were. Television, movies and fashion magazines flaunt sex. Ad vertisers sell products with sex. Sex is everywhere. Parents who think they can isolate their children from these sexual influ ences are living in a fantasy world. Pre tending the problem doesn’t exist won’t make it go away. The problem does ex ist. So let’s stop bemoaning the issue, say ing such programs destroy family values and moral responsibility, and do some- thing to solve the problem. Some Baltimore schools have taken action. Two junior and senior high schools, with 3,400 students in grades seven through 12, participated in a sex education program from 1981 to 1984. There was a 30 percent decrease in pregnancies among the girls who partic ipated in the program, according to a study of the schools. The two schools that didn’t participate in the program experienced a 58 percent increase in pregnancies during the same period. The three-year study by John Hop kins University also shows that the sex ually-educated girls appeared to have postponed their first sexual encounter and were more likely to seek birth con trol, says Dr. Laurie Schwab Zabin, the principle investigator in the study. “This shows that such programs do not encourage students to become more sexually active but that they may actu ally postpone sex longer,” Zabin says. “This shows that something can be done about the teen-age pregnancy prob lem.” A nurse and a social wofker educated the students by providing in-school counseling, information about sexuality, and responsibilty and group dis cussions. A nearby health clinic gave free and confidential medical examina tions, provided contraceptives, informa tion, counseling and referrals when needed as part of the program, Zabin says. The students used these opportuni ties of sexual awareness and under standing to their advantages, not for sexual pleasure. When confronted with the facts and the idea that they were ac countable for their own sexual conduct, the students embraced responsibility — not one another. Maintaining sexual illiteracy in the name of traditional values won’t solve the teen-age pregnancy problem. And force-feeding the youth of America a “Leave-It-T o-Beaver’’philosophy on sexual mores won’t help those who are already in trouble. Sexual awareness through education, not condemnation, is the only solution to this social crisis. If we keep children in the dark about sex, it will only perpetuate the existing problem. Kids today don’t want to be parents anymore than the kids of yester day did. And given the opportunity to understand the responsibilities of adul thood, most will choose childhood, not children. Michelle Powe is a senior journalism major and editor for The Battalion. I 90 NOf V/AN'T tCT KCAPMC, AfrOUT ttAQIC,'tll£©CCUH; viou£nc£, v/h£h£s. -You m£ad l£Ykk5 OfTn£ KJNq. VAttf&S «>SAl£tT» uyf? no., -me: , WtZAKP Of QZr! Speak softly and carry no stick Question: Knock, knock, who’s there? An swer: It depends. If you are knock ing about Nicara- g u a o r A n g o 1 a, President Reagan is there with the strongest of lan guage — every- thing fro m charges of official Richard Cohen anti-Semitism to accusations of slave la- But if you’re knocking about a right-wing regime, say Chile or South Africa, then it is fair to say that no one is home. Come back in another adminis tration. according to witnesses, he was denied treatment and died. What made the tra gedy extraordinary was the sheer acci dent that Rojas had once lived in Wash ington. The Capitol noticed and the State Department roused itself in con demnation. Otherwise, it was just an other day in Chile. For both Chile and South Africa, the Reagan administration initially trashed Jimmy Carter’s human-rights policy and pursued a most peculiar course. These countries would no longer be hectored and bullied. Quietly, reasonably, we would work with them and encourage them to change their ways. The upshot was a perversion of the Teddy Roosevelt maxim: We spoke softly and carried no stick. Recently, for instance, a 19-year-old Chilean, Rodrigo Rojas, was doused with a flammable liquid and set afire by Chilean soldiers. Critically burned, Ro jas was taken to a hospital where, The Battalion (USPS 045 360) Member of Texas Press Association Southwest Journalism Conference The Battalion Editorial Board Michelle Powe, Editor Kay Mallett, Managing Editor Loren Steffy, Opinion Page Editor Scott Sutherland, City Editor Ken Sury, Sports Editor Editorial Policy The Battalion is a ntm-piofii. self-supporting neuspn- pci npernted .is u ctmnnunitv set vice to Texas A&.XI and Hi \ an-College Station. Opinions expressed in The Battalion ate those of the F.ditoiial Board or the author, and do not necessarily rep- t esent the opinions of Texas A&M administrators, faculty (a the Board of Regents. 'The Battalion also serves as a laboratory newspaper for students in reporting, editing and photography classes within the Department of Journalism. The Battalion is published Tuesday through Friday during the Texas A&M summer semester. Mail subscrip tions ate Sib. 75 per semester. $53.25 per school year and S35 per lull y ear. Advertising rates furnished on request. Out address: The Battalion. 216 Reed McDonald Building. Texas ASv.M L'niy ersitx. College Station. TX 77H43. Second class postage paid at College Station. I X 77843. POSTMAS TER: Send address changes to The Battal ion. 216 Reed McDohald. Texas A&M L'niversity. College Station TX 77843. The consequences are now plain. Al though that policy has changed towards both Chile and South Africa — it is now far more condemnatory — the years of inaction have taken their toll. The gov ernments of those two nations were en titled to think that the United States, cherishing anti-communism above all things, was more or less in their corner. The peoples of those countries reached the same conclusions. In both Chile and South Africa, the prestige of the United States has plummeted. “They think that Reagan is the friend of their enemy,” is the way one Chilean intellectual put it. One could argue that the Carter ad ministration had no success with Chile or South Africa, either. But it was clear that the government of the United States and, especially, its president held those regimes in scorn. Jimmy Carter was not hesitant to articulate an Ameri can ethic: We believe in democracy, in human rights. And we were not afraid to say so — even if it meant shouting it from rooftops. But not the Reagan ad ministration or the president himself. In a speech last March enunciating what is now called the Reagan Doctrine, the president paid homage to the very ethic that informed Carter’s human- rights policy: “In this global revolution. Mail Call Funeral bells are ringing EDITOR: I sat on my typing fingers when columnist Mark Ude suggested that AIDS victims were expendable — not really worth the tax money that real Americans would have to spend to find a cure for their plight. I even triedto ignore his claim that democracy is what comes out of the barrel of Cobra Stallone’s gun. But I feel compelled to instruct him that the lines on the base of the Statue of Liberty are not — as he alleges — those of white Anglo-Saxon j Protestant male Emerson but Sephardic Jewish female Emma Lazarus. I mention this to Ude for reasons other than simple historical accuracy, though that, too, is important. For Lazarus lived in a time not unlike ourownj Born and raised in a more liberal era, she too witnessed the surge of a Protestant elite. 4'he “moral majority” of her times was one to whom Jews were excludable, if not expendable. She was one of the few Jews with the courage, skills and social contacts to fight back. The conviction that motivated her poem, the one Ude quotes in part,was] that a society in which the majority exercises tyranny over its minorities cannot be a just society. It was her work with homeless refugees on Wards Island, as well as in the causes of the minorities of which she was a member, that led her to w'rite the words we still recite. But until we are able to think of AIDS victims, the homeless, the accused but not convicted, and even the foreigner in our midst, as more than just expendable or as f actors in an economic scenario (as Ude does of AIDS victims and illegal immigrants) then we wall have to be content to recite her words — for we will not have celebrated them. Finally, as for the “conservatism” whose bandwagon Ude joins but which he seldom supports with concrete argument, I give him words of Emerson's contemporary Henry Ward Beecher: “A conservative young man has wound I up his life before it was unreeled. We expect old men to be conservative but when a nation’s young men are so, its funeral bell is already rung.” Larry Hickman Associate Professor of Philosophy and Humanities there can be no doubt where America stands. The American people believe in human rights and oppose tyranny in whatever form, whether of the left or the right.” The trouble is, we denounce tyranny from the left much more en ergetically than we do form the right. The president’s words notwithstanding, tyrannies on the right remain our pals. Neither South Africa nor Chile is a Soviet ally. There is good reason to dis tinguish between countries that are our friends and those that are not. But even if the administration’s chief objective is to keep these countries out of the Soviet orbit and only secondarily to encourage the growth of democracy, it ought to see where its policies are heading. In both countries, Reggan’s silence is taken as consent — at best, indifference. Future regimes, whether democratic or not, may well turn out to be anti-American. We will lose on all accounts. Everyone knows where Reagan stands when it comes to Nicaragua or Angola. That is certainly not the case with South Africa or Chile — despite the best efforts of our ambassador to Santiago. The moral outrage the presi dent summons for tyrannies of the left is muted when he deals with those of the right. Instead of words from the presi dent, we get monotone expressions of regret from the State Department — ab surd condemnations of violence on both sides, as if a general strike and state- sponsored terrorism are equivalent. The upshot is that the very American ethic the president mentioned in his March speech loses its most influential voice. It does not carry to the slums of Santiago or the black townships of South Africa. It hardly matters that Rodrigo Rojas was a temporary American. What mat ters is that he was a human being and that he was burned to death by Chilean soldiers. That murder, and others like it in South Africa, are abominations and ought to be condemmed. Knock, knock, Mr. President. Show us there’s someone home. Erosion of rights in defense of freedom EDITOR: Once again the political foundation of this country is being eroded by those who claim to defend it. The attack on pornography by the religious right is more than an attack on the sanctity of the individual power of reason it is also an attack on Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, John Locke andtht others founded our moral philosophy. What is their justification? That every human being is a vile, irrational savage that has neither the courage nor the intellect to make his own choice' Their solution? An omnipotent government (run by irrational savages) that can decide “what goes” in his bedroom and his library. Furthermore, they have continually claimed that the MAJORITY (whatever that is) has the right to inflict its will on the individual. That is NOT democracy, it is gang rule. Wasn’t that Hitler’s justification? 1 don’t think that is what Jefferson and Locke had in mind. These people base their attacks on fear and hatred. Hatred of anyone who wants to be left alone to live his life as he chooses. Don’t turn your bads and pretend this will go away, it won’t. The only way to defend your rightsis to stand up to these people. Stephen M. Jaeger What about after-hours illness? EDITOR: I have grown accustomed to the fact that the administration of Texas A&M has a different set of priorities than I would choose, but typically, Iletiij go by until something happens that affects me directly. I believe that the recent decision to stop offering 24-hour services at the A.P. Beutel Health Center is nothing less than idiotic. Unfortunately, I am not familiar with the legal precedents, if any, that oblige a university to provide health careinanv form to students. Joanne Fendell A quick fix EDITOR: be I if t gra run tor I N A Fie There seems to be little hesitation in raising tuition as a response to falling oil prices, or other adverse economic conditions. If there is not enough money collected from the health services fee to offer 24-hour services, thenii [ should be raised to cover the additional cost. I don’t want to seem harsh,since the health service fee has to be the biggest bargain on campus. Not only dow get medical care for only the additional cost of tests, but the prescriptions are cheaper than anywhere else in Bryan-College Station. The administration has failed to face one very important fact: most students cannot afford health insurance. The plan offered through the University is not very good, given the premium charged relative to what the plan covers. Consequently, we go without. Are we expected to get sick only during clinic hours? This both unlikely and foolish to expect. A&M’s aspirations to being a world-class university are commendable,bin the sincerity of such aspirations should be measured by how the studentsare treated in the process. pre Ho Jerry Cole Chemical Engineering Graduate Student tha cer tor mg of ch; kii Fie E Pr ha un pa 2 I have some comments about an issue mentioned in Bill Sparks’ letter of July 8. He wrote, “I worry that people like ,..., will dictateto women under what conditions, if any, a woman may decide to abort her pregnancy, . . .” Let me point out what in reality IS being aborted (it is much more thana pregnancy): It begins to produce blood cells after 17 days (after fertilization). It has a heart pumping its own blood after one month. It has a vascular system independent of its mother (the mother and unborn child do not exchange blood). Its brain waves can be detected after 43 days. After eight weeks every organ, muscle, bone, nerve, etc. of a human bod' is present and developing. By the end of the third month it can kick legs, curl and fan its toes, make)| fist, hend its wrist and turn its head. Amniotic fluid moves in and out of its lungs with inhaling and exhaling respiratory motions. Does a 12-year-old person, since he is at a higher stage of human development, have a greater right to life than a 12-month-old? No, of course j not. In the same way, the 12-month-old child has no greater right to life that the 12-week-old unborn child, even though the 12-month-old is at a higher stage of development. Unfortunately for the unborn child, the Supreme Court has decided that it has no rights whatsoever, even that most basic riglii to life. Abortion is a “quick fix,” 99 percent of the time, for irresponsible sexual activity. Unfortunately, there happens to be a living being that pays the price and it is a very high price — the termination of life. Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words in length. The editorial staff reserves therif | to edit letters for style and length, but will make every effort to maintain the author’s intfi Each letter must be signed and must include the address and telephone number of the writer. Copyright 1986, Washington Post Writers Group

Texas A&M Newspaper Collection

Texas A&M Newspaper Collection

The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, July 18, 1986, Image 2

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