Culture Wars Continue
In a major public health breakthrough, the Food and Drug Administration yesterday approved the first vaccine developed to protect women against cervical cancer. The vaccine, which works by building immunity against the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus, was found to be effective in preventing almost three-quarters of all cervical cancers.
The CDC estimates that about 6.2 million Americans become infected with genital HPV each year and that more than half of all sexually active men and women become infected in their lives. More than 9,700 new cases of cervical cancer and 3,700 deaths are attributed to the virus yearly in the United States.
The prospect of young girls receiving the vaccine has disturbed some social conservatives, who adamantly oppose efforts to make the vaccination mandatory. They say that sexual abstinence is the best way to avoid getting the virus and in their view of the world, if you are not abstinent, you should be made to pay the price of this transgression by having an unwanted baby or getting cancer.
On its Web site, the group Focus on the Family said it "supports widespread (universal) availability of the HPV vaccines but opposes mandatory HPV vaccination for entry to public school. As in all areas of sexual health and education, Focus on the Family upholds parents' right to be the primary decision maker and educator for their children."
Of course conservatives have no problem reversing this argument of no government intervention when it comes to abortion or same-sex marriage. In those cases it’s fine for government to intervene.
Every time you think the Republican Congress cannot top its proclivity to embarrass itself even further, they just rise to the next level. Knowing that there were insufficient votes to pass the Constitutional Amendment that affirms that marriage is solely between a man and a woman, they brought this legislation to the Senate floor for debate. Other than pandering to their base and further polarizing the country what possible reason could they have to waste time on this subject while the US faces major problems – rising government debt, no health insurance for 45 million American citizens, domestic surveillance by an Administration that knows Congress has abdicated its oversight role, and a dependence on oil that strengthens our enemies and leaves us vulnerable.
The tired argument that they are defending marriage is brought out each time they attempt to justify what is really a bigoted position against gays. Not one of these proponents has ever explained to me why my marriage is “threatened” because some same sex couple lives in my neighborhood. And the reason they can’t be convincing is that there is no logical basis for their rationale. What does explain their position is that they cannot accept the idea that someone thinks differently. Their belief in their value system must be so tenuous that if everyone doesn’t agree with them, they are threatened and fearful, deep down, that what they believe is not true. So their approach is to force everyone to follow what they believe in. If conservatives don’t believe in abortion, they should not have one. If they don’t want to marry some one of the same sex, they shouldn’t do it. But then leave the rest of society alone and remember that this country was founded by people seeking freedom from the oppressive conditions they were experiencing in England.
The CDC estimates that about 6.2 million Americans become infected with genital HPV each year and that more than half of all sexually active men and women become infected in their lives. More than 9,700 new cases of cervical cancer and 3,700 deaths are attributed to the virus yearly in the United States.
The prospect of young girls receiving the vaccine has disturbed some social conservatives, who adamantly oppose efforts to make the vaccination mandatory. They say that sexual abstinence is the best way to avoid getting the virus and in their view of the world, if you are not abstinent, you should be made to pay the price of this transgression by having an unwanted baby or getting cancer.
On its Web site, the group Focus on the Family said it "supports widespread (universal) availability of the HPV vaccines but opposes mandatory HPV vaccination for entry to public school. As in all areas of sexual health and education, Focus on the Family upholds parents' right to be the primary decision maker and educator for their children."
Of course conservatives have no problem reversing this argument of no government intervention when it comes to abortion or same-sex marriage. In those cases it’s fine for government to intervene.
Every time you think the Republican Congress cannot top its proclivity to embarrass itself even further, they just rise to the next level. Knowing that there were insufficient votes to pass the Constitutional Amendment that affirms that marriage is solely between a man and a woman, they brought this legislation to the Senate floor for debate. Other than pandering to their base and further polarizing the country what possible reason could they have to waste time on this subject while the US faces major problems – rising government debt, no health insurance for 45 million American citizens, domestic surveillance by an Administration that knows Congress has abdicated its oversight role, and a dependence on oil that strengthens our enemies and leaves us vulnerable.
The tired argument that they are defending marriage is brought out each time they attempt to justify what is really a bigoted position against gays. Not one of these proponents has ever explained to me why my marriage is “threatened” because some same sex couple lives in my neighborhood. And the reason they can’t be convincing is that there is no logical basis for their rationale. What does explain their position is that they cannot accept the idea that someone thinks differently. Their belief in their value system must be so tenuous that if everyone doesn’t agree with them, they are threatened and fearful, deep down, that what they believe is not true. So their approach is to force everyone to follow what they believe in. If conservatives don’t believe in abortion, they should not have one. If they don’t want to marry some one of the same sex, they shouldn’t do it. But then leave the rest of society alone and remember that this country was founded by people seeking freedom from the oppressive conditions they were experiencing in England.
posted by John Weiss at 4:52 PM
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