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Opinion
Reece Terry, publisher
Mark Boehler, editor
4A • Friday, April 13, 2012
Corinth, Miss.
Guest View
Abstinence-centered education is the best BY CAROLYN GOWEN Despite what you may read in the newspapers, there is a growing body of research that confirms that abstinence-centered education decreases sexual initiation, increases abstinent behavior among sexually experienced teens, and/or decreases the number of partners among sexually experienced teens. The term, “abstinence only” education is strategically attached to federal funding by opponents to create the false perception that abstinence-centered education is a narrow and unrealistic approach. Abstinence education is overwhelmingly more comprehensive and holistic than other approaches and focuses on the real-life struggles that teens face as they navigate through the difficult adolescent years. Abstinence-centered education realizes that “having sex” can potentially affect teens not only physically -- STDs and pregnancy -- but also, as research shows, can have emotional, psychological, social, economic and educational consequences. That’s why topics frequently discussed in an abstinence education class include how to identify a healthy relationship, how to avoid or get out of a dangerous, unhealthy or abusive relationship, develop skills to make good decisions, set goals for the future and take realistic steps to reach them, understand and avoid STDs, information about contraceptives and their effectiveness against pregnancy and STDs, practical ways to avoid inappropriate sexual advances, and why abstinence until marriage is optimal. So, within an abstinence education program, teens receive all the information they need in order to make healthy choices. The programs typically include lessons about the media’s influence as well as the interconnection of other risks behaviors -- drugs , alcohol, tobacco and youth violence. That’s a lot of information and skills packed into an abstinence curriculum. And all of these topics are taught within the context of why abstinence is the best choice. To answer the question that abstinence classes cannot give information about condoms and contraception, these curricula explain the various contraceptive choices and how they can reduce the risk of acquiring STDs or getting pregnant. This discussion, however, always stresses the best health choice of abstinence as the only way to prevent all risk. Many so-called comprehensive sex ed curricula mislead students by providing humanly-impossible “perfect use” protection rates for condoms, which give students a false sense of security. By contrast, abstinence programs give students the real-life protection rates that a condom offers. A recent national poll of parents demonstrated that 90 percent want their children to know about the risks associated with casual sex and the limitations of contraception. They want their children to learn about condoms and contraception in the manner provided in an abstinence education class. It is also interesting to note students who have been a part of an abstinence class are no less likely to use a condom if they become sexually active. All of the information above came from the National Abstinence Education Association (NAEA) website. Having been the pioneer of abstinence education in the surrounding counties -- teaching the first one in Corinth Junior High on March 24, 1995 along with Dr. Richard Hendrick -- I am amazed there is even an argument about which type sex education to teach. People must believe teenagers cannot be empowered to make healthy decisions about their sex life. In the context of other high risk behaviors, parents would not want someone to show teens how to use drugs just in case they wanted to try them, or get drunk and have a wreck just to educate them on the consequences of driving under the influence of alcohol. It is mind-boggling folks cannot understand the only 100 percent guaranteed way for teens to avoid teen pregnancy and/or sexually transmitted diseases is to choose abstinence. That should be the message at home, in church and in the school. (Carolyn Gowen is with the Booneville School District Healthy Marriage Initiative.)
Prayer for today Dear God, having faith is hard during times when you seem distant. Show us your presence in the people around us and as you speak to us through your word. Amen.
A verse to share Three times a day Daniel got down on his knees, and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before. — Daniel 6:10 (NIV)
Reece Terry publisher rterry@dailycorinthian.com
Myth about the outing of ‘Deep Throat’ As the 40th anniversary of Watergate impends, we are to be bathed again in the great myth and morality play about the finest hour in all of American journalism. The myth? That two heroic young reporters at The Washington Post, guided by a secret source, a man of conscience they dubbed “Deep Throat,” cracked the case and broke the scandal wide open, where the FBI, U.S. prosecutors and more experienced journalists floundered and failed. Through their tireless investigative reporting, they compelled the agencies of government to treat Watergate as the unprecedented constitutional crisis it was. No Pulitzer Prize was ever more deserved than the one awarded the Post in 1973. These young journalists saved our republic! However, the myth, fabricated in “All the President’s Men” and affirmed by the 1976 film of the same name, with Robert Redford as Bob Woodward and Dustin Hoffman as Carl Bernstein, has a Hellfire missile coming its way. “Leak: Why Mark Felt Became Deep Throat” is an exhaustive study of the reporting of Woodward and Bernstein and the leaking by the FBI’s Mark Felt, whose identify as Deep Throat was revealed in 2005. “Leak” author Max Holland zeroes in on the last great unanswered question of Watergate: Why did Felt, an FBI No. 2 on the short list to succeed J. Edgar Hoover,
risk reputation and career to leak secrets to the Post? Woodward and BernPatrick stein paint Buchanan Deep Throat, writes HolColumnist land, as a “selfless highranking official intent on exposing the lawlessness of the Nixon White House.” But this is self-serving nonsense. The truth was right in front of Woodward. His refusal to see it made him a willing or witless collaborator in the ruin of the reputation and career of an honorable pubic servant, Patrick Gray. Felt was consumed by anger and ambition. When Hoover died, a month before the break-in, Felt, who had toadied to Hoover, saw himself as Hoover’s successor. But President Nixon went outside the bureau to name Gray from the Department of Justice acting director. Concealing his rage and resentment, Felt wormed himself into Gray’s confidence, and then set out to destroy Gray. Felt’s method: Leak discoveries of the Watergate investigation to a cub reporter at the Post, which everybody in Washington read, rather than to veteran journalists known to be FBI outlets. This would cover Felt’s tracks. Published in the Post, the leaks of what the FBI was uncovering would enrage Nixon and make Gray ap-
pear an incompetent unable to conduct a professional investigation. This would make it unlikely that Nixon would ever send Gray’s name to the Senate for confirmation as permanent director. And if Gray, an outsider, fell because he couldn’t keep the FBI from leaking, Nixon might turn to Felt, the ranking insider who could button up the bureau like Hoover did. By ingratiating himself with Gray as he set out to discredit and destroy him, Felt expected that when Gray was passed over by Nixon, he would recommend to Nixon that he appoint his loyal deputy, Felt, as director. Even if cynical and vicious, the scheme was clever. Until Nixon found out Felt was the leaker in late 1972, he was considering Felt for the top job. Felt’s machinations and deceptions at the apex of the FBI make Nixon’s White House appear in retrospect to have been a cloistered convent of Carmelite nuns. More revolting than the ruin of Gray’s reputation was what Felt did to the good name of the bureau he professed to love. By leaking what agents were learning about Watergate, he was discrediting the FBI. Inside the government, he made the FBI look like an agency of bumblers who could not keep secrets. Outside the government, the FBI looked like a three-toed sloth, while a fleet-footed and fearless Washington
Post was unearthing the truth. The FBI appeared beaten at every turn by the brilliant Post, when it was the FBI’s homework Felt was stealing and the Post was cribbing. Woodward and Bernstein were glorified stenographers. And though Deep Throat was portrayed as a man sickened by the wiretaps and break-ins by the White House, Felt himself, writes Holland, “authorized illegal surreptitious entries into the homes of people associated with the Weather Underground.” In 1979, Felt was prosecuted and convicted and then pardoned by Reagan. In “The Secret Man,” Woodward calls Felt “a truth-teller.” That’s quite a tribute to an FBI man who lied to Pat Gray, lied to all of his FBI colleagues and lied to every journalist who asked him for 30 years whether he was Deep Throat. If Felt was a hero, why did he not come forward to tell the country what he had done and why? Because he was no hero. Mark Felt was a snake. He used the Post to destroy his rivals and advance his ambitions, and the Post didn’t care what his motives were because Felt was assisting them in destroying their old enemy. Yes, indeed, the finest hour in American journalism. (Patrick J. Buchanan is the author of “Suicide of a Superpower: Will America Survive to 2025?”)
Rick Santorum’s campaign, ‘The Impossible Dream’ Most campaigns have a musical theme. Rick Santorum, who “suspended” his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination on Tuesday, might have selected the song “The Impossible Dream.” Santorum’s dream seemed improbable, if not impossible, from the start. He lost his last Senate race and had been out of office -- and out of mind -- for the last few years; not exactly a platform on which one usually runs for president. Political “experts” believed his chief foe, Mitt Romney, was unbeatable. Santorum played an important role by exposing some of Romney’s weaknesses, but early enough that it will help Romney in the general election campaign. Santorum was forced to “bear with unbearable sorrow” the health struggles of his daughter, Bella, and he did it with a grace that allowed others who are struggling with physicallyand mentally-challenged
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children to identify with him. No one could credibly accuse him of being an elitist and Cal out of touch Thomas with average Americans. Columnist The former senator ran where others would not, or could not, go successfully. Santorum is a decent man in an indecent age, preaching to a largely hedonistic culture about old-time values abandoned by many, perhaps even a majority of Americans. At the very least, too many are indifferent to them. In doing so, he attempted to “right the unrightable wrong” and encourage others to be “better far than you are,” even when their “arms are too weary.” Rick Santorum’s greatest contribution to the Republican campaign may have been to force the now presumed nominee, Mitt Rom-
ney, to the right. Romney claims he has always been a conservative, but he has had a difficult time convincing voters who were attracted to Santorum, whom they believed to be the true conservative in the race. If Santorum ends up campaigning for Romney and brings his religious and conservative values voters with him, Romney will owe him in a big way and that might make him an important powerbroker. He could also serve as a useful attack dog, snapping at President Obama’s heels. Should Romney choose to use him in that role, he could be an effective counter to Vice President Joe Biden, who has been engaging in demagoguery against Republicans in recent speeches. Though Santorum did not mention Romney in his campaign suspension announcement, Romney mentioned Santorum in a brief statement. Romney said of his now former rival, “He has proven himself to be an
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important voice in our party and in the nation. We both recognize that what is important is putting the failures of the last three years behind us and setting America back on the path to prosperity.” If Santorum reciprocates, maybe not immediately, but eventually, the healing of the divisive primary campaign will have been achieved. If Santorum does the job well enough, he could find himself in a Romney cabinet, say, secretary of Health and Human Services, where he could focus on those moral and cultural issues about which he cares so much. Or, he might even be Romney’s choice for vice president. There have been stranger bedfellows in American politics. Santorum as vice president really would be an impossible dream, but if elected he would have come very close to almost reaching “the unreachable star.” (Readers may e-mail Cal Thomas at tmseditors@tribune.com.)
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