Writing

Dear Mr. Bush:

There is obviously a changing tide in American policy on AIDS prevention. When I was in high school, I learned that condoms are good protection against sexually-transmitted diseases, including HIV and AIDS. Not risk-free, but certainly an important safety measure if I chose to have sexual intercourse. In college, the health center gave out free condoms to whoever wanted them, no questions asked.

Imagine my surprise when I learned that condoms might not be effective in preventing AIDS! 98% is not 100%, and of anyone, you Mr. Bush, would know the importance of two percentage points. Not only are condoms 2% ineffective, but demonstrating their use – even on a dildo or a cucumber – is considered obscene. I am extremely relieved that thanks to your new sex education guidelines, high-schoolers all across America will graduate with their precious morality intact, and learn the important message Just Say No to Sex. After the effectiveness of the War on Drugs and the Just Say No campaign during my own school days, I am confident that we will be able to slow, and even stop, the spread of AIDS in our country.

However, I have a few concerns. The advertising and entertainment industries must not have heard about your new guidelines, because television, movies, magazines, and billboards are sending a very different message. I am worried that impressionable teenagers might become confused as to the values and behaviors expected of them. For instance, most pop music videos portray sex and its pursuit in an offhand way, or imply that a person needs to be sexually active in order to be happy and fulfilled. Many music videos even place the value of sex on a similar level to cars, stylish clothes, and big houses. Television programs and movies often include premarital sex without any mention of abstinence at all. Many programs “rate” the sex appeal of celebrities or share details of their sex lives. Sexually-suggestive images are used on billboards and in magazines to sell everything from cars to alcohol to jeans, and I worry that this constant bombardment will cause hormonally-imbalanced teenagers to think about sex more often than they think about morality. Even teens who regularly read the Holy Bible will find many references to sex outside of marriage – even incest, rape, and prostitution!

Mr. Bush, we seem to live in a sex-crazed society! I think it’s important to streamline the messages our youngsters hear, so there is no question that abstinence is the only accepted behavior. I suggest that you contact the executives at such television networks as Fox and MTV, and insist that they select their programming based on the guidelines of your sex education policy. Advertising executives should be advised to keep sexually-charged images out of the public eye, and motion pictures should be appropriately rated NC-17 when they include any sexual references whatsoever.

I hope that these suggestions prove helpful in stopping the spread of HIV/AIDS in our country, and raising the moral consciousness of our citizens.

Sincerely,
Myshele Goldberg

NOTE: THIS WAS MEANT AS A SPOOF!! I AM UTTERLY AGAINST ABSTINENCE-ONLY EDUCATION!!

When people get their driver's license, they learn the importance of wearing a seatbelt. Ultimately, it's their choice of whether to use protective gear or not, but at least they know what's available. Abstinence-only education is like telling people that the only protection against car crashes is to never drive or ride in a car, because even if you wear a seatbelt, you can still die in an accident. It's certainly true that if you're never in a car, you can never be in a car crash, and seatbelts don't save everyone who is in a car crash. But we know that seatbelts increase your chances of surviving a car crash, and we know most people in our country spend some amount of their time in cars. So it's best to educate them about seatbelts and why they should wear them, rather than expecting them to never get in a car to begin with.