fixing ourselves takes time

Last week CDC reported more than three million teens have an STD based on a study of girls ages 14 to 19 and nearly half of these girls were black with Hispanics following close behind. Today, Chicago Tribune reported that teens in Chicago do not have the facts on STD, sexual education and seem somewhat doomed in their understanding of how a condom works and no idea on prevention methods. Some of the unbelievable made by the teens were about plastic baggies in lieu of condoms, having sex while standing and bathing right after sex and using aluminum foil as a barrier. Who in a half-straight-left-mind would even entertain the idea of creating any type of friction against genitals with aluminum foil? 

I’m not surprised one bit that the kids are this mixed up and their lack of understanding shows in higher STD rates which will ultimately mean higher rates of HIV and teen-pregnancy. I’m surprised the numbers are not higher and if a countywide study was conducted I bet the numbers would indeed be much higher.

Something happened in late 2002 to the CDC’s website information with respect to HIV, STIs, condoms and their effectiveness. This goes right along with the rest of the bad science that the Bush administration has been using to ruin our democracy and run their demagoguery, which is what the political climate has felt like to me since that dreaded day he was sworn in.

Kids (and adults) are going to be infected with every kind of sexually transmitted disease in huge numbers thanks to the bad information that the Bush administration has regurgitated now for years. We also have the Pope to thank for completely mixing everything up. Families are also evidently still uncomfortable with clear and honest safe sex, protection and prevention conversations with their young ones.

Due to the bad information, just like the questioning of global weather changes and Bush’s apparent disconnection with the nation’s gas prices last week, the STD and HIV rates will be climbing while the Dow and NASDAQ plummet! The kids (and adults) have found their loophole just as all the other arms of government and religions have, except the kid’s loopholes (no pun intended) will harm them.

Just say no to sex is a joke and a more hilarious subject is abstaining from sex when every song, commercial, movie and cartoon is loaded with sexual innuendo. Do we think the kids are truly this gullible? My eight-year old niece asked my brother if her uncle was gay last week and my brother had to spell out g-a-y when reporting that factoid to me. Evidently, my niece is ready for an honest response to her query and instead the parents showed her that in the dictionary gay means happy! Problem?

Girls in school want to be cool, they don’t want to be geeks and nerds and neither do the boys. Their loophole is oral sex and anal sex. It’s been going on for years now and the kids are doing it because they do not feel they are lying to their parents, the religion or the society, and they’re not. If I were a kid today and my parent was uncomfortable talking about sex and my parent asked me if I was having sex I would answer “absolutely not!” and expect to pass a lie detector test. Since Bush and the Pope never talk about anal or oral sex then the only sex they could be talking about is traditional sex! They’ve both proclaimed it quite explicitly either by the CDC website or a declaration outside the papal window. And they can’t talk about sex that falls in the no-no area because Bush and the Pope are equally uncomfortable talking about sex.

The kids are having every type of sex, whether it is traditional, oral, and anal or all encompassing of the entire Kama Sutra. It won’t stop just because there’s a ten second message stating religious or moral values followed by hours of infamous females getting loaded and driving and becoming pregnant and hooking their way to a New York jazz lounge by way of Spitzer. The kids are way smarter than we think. The problem is; they are just kids. They do think they are invincible. And when they come down with the STD, the pregnancy or the positive HIV test, we have no idea how they will react, except they will not be prepared to deal with is effectively. And even the few that do act proactively may not know how many others were infected before and after their discovery.

The following quote is from http://webexhibits.org/bush/7.html

“A fact sheet on the CDC website that included information on proper condom use, the effectiveness of different types of condoms, and studies showing that condom education does not promote sexual activity was replaced in October 2002 with a document that emphasizes condom failure rates and the effectiveness of abstinence.⁴⁵ When a source inside the CDC questioned the actions, she was told that the changes were directed by Bush administration officials at the Department of Health and Human Services”

Clearly, the nation’s youth (and the adults!) are in for a bumpy ride. With all the current messiness of politics, the mudslinging from one camp to the other in the race for the white house, the recession, the war, the real estate slump; who’s got time for frank and honest health and sexuality talk with the young ones? It’s a cliché but they are the future of America.    

 Ó 2008 Carlos A. Perez