Logic? Where?!

While watching a national "unbiased" news station the other day, I saw the following opinion poll:

"Do you think that abstinence only programs in schools should be abolished?"

Take a moment and read that again.

My basic reaction to this is, "What the..?!" Are you kidding me? Abolished? I paused to consider what rational thought might be behind this inquiry. The only one I could come up with is the age old "Well, we know they are going to do it anyway." Alright. If they are going to do it anyway, why encourage them not to? What else should we apply that bastion of wisdom to?

drugs
Let's end all of the "Just say no" campaigns. It's unreasonable to expect our teens to resist drugs entirely and, because we know they are going to do it anyway, let's provide them with clean needles so at least they aren't spreading disease.

alcohol
Clearly we are losing this battle. but, if they are going to do it anyway, we might as well provide them with the fake IDs. No sense in them spending their money on them. Let's stop arresting parents who provide their kids with booze, too. No better place to get loaded than with mom, right?

reckless driving
Why do you think their car insurance is so high? Because they're all doing it! Let's institute a "teen only" night on those roadways that we know they use. Berlin Turnpike in central CT. Route 1 on the North Shore of Boston. Meadow Road in my old home town. That way they'd only risk hurting themselves.

cigarettes
Despite the evidence and the warnings, teens are still lighting up. Seeing as we can't stop them all, we might as well manufacture a less dangerous cancer stick for youths. We'll call 'em "Cigs" and the tag line can be "these ain't your father's smokes." Half the tar, twice the taste, just as addictive.

Ridiculous, right? Why, then, do we actually hold this view:

sex
We know that nothing ends the days of youthful irresponsibility quicker than a teen pregnancy and many STDs are incurable but, we know they are going to do it anyway. So let's not encourage them not to all together and give them the tools they'd need to engage in this at risk behavior. Let's also encourage this activity so that they separate love and sex earlier and earlier ensuring that their understanding of commitment will be underdeveloped and our divorce rate will be underestimated. We certainly don't want to be viewed as "unhip" or "party-poopers."

I think the problem is that opponents of these programs that support abstinence from any of these dangerous choices feel that because we can't convince them all, we should stop trying to convince the rest. By that logic, because we can't send everyone's cancer into remission, we should attempt to save any.

Those programs helped me, and I know some people who wished that they'd listened when they were a member of the targeted demographic. Let's start acting like mentors by assisting our young people in growing to be responsible adults, rather than trying to be their buddies and not wanting to restrict their "experimentation." The 60's are dead. Let's leave it that way!