One In Four?

Yesterday the Center for Disease Control released the results of a study on teens and sexually transmitted diseases. It seems that one out of every four teenage girls is infected with an STD. Now before you hurt your head trying to mentally tally up every teenage girl you know, you will be relieved to know that the experts have a plan to solve this crisis. The first step in this plan is to step up education efforts to let teens know that you can have and spread an STD without showing any symptoms. Step two is to make sure teens know they can tell their doctors anything without fear of their parents being told.

Are you kidding me? Have we lost all vestiges of common sense? The growing teen pregnancy rate as well as this new horrifying statistic are direct results of the willingness of parents to abdicate their authority to the state. We let the pop culture and media dictate the morality of our youth, the public school systems determine what information they will be given regarding sexuality, and doctors serve as the confidants. We are already on a very slippery slope leading us rapidly into becoming a government-led society. The state will have the last word when it comes to our children. And, in case you were wondering, that governmental philosophy is called communism.

We need to stop pushing so-called tolerance at the expense of old-fashioned morality. It is not intolerant to promote a higher standard of conduct. We need to purge our discourse of euphemistic terminology--such as "experimentation" and "safe sex"--and reattach the full weight that ought to belong to sexual relationships. What our teens need to be taught is that there is no such thing as recreational, casual, or safe sex. We won't even let our children drive under the age of 16, and then, not without intensive instruction and licensing. They are held accountable for their conduct behind the wheel, but we as a society seek continually to remove accountability for sexual conduct, handing out condoms and insulating teens from the parental consequences that are the main tools for shaping appropriate behavior among children.

So, here's my revolutionary proposal. Let's cut off the experts' access to our children and put the authority back in the hands of the parents. I know it sounds like a long shot, but it just might work.