6th Grade Passions

As far as I can remember, a 6th grader is about 12 years old. Well, imagine this...the honorable governor of the State of Texas has mandated, by virtue of an executive order, that all sixth grade female students must be innoculated against the Human Papiloma Virus before entering the 6th grade. Now, HPV is a sexually transmitted disease...in other words, you guys, in order to need the vaccine you must first be sexaully active. You don't even run a outside chance of getting HPV from kissing or from sharing a straw with your milk shake. Oh! How gauche! Nobody does that anymore and as far as I know, no one makes milk shakes either!

Anyway, the point is that this mandate assumes that 6th graders are the at risk for sexually transmitted diseases. And sad as it makes me to say this, I think that a good number of 6th graders may well be at risk. And certainly, as the grade increases the ability of our youngsters to behave in a manner that contributes to their welfare decreases. But what ticks me off is that no one seems to be mentioning the obvious...not whether the governor has the right to mandate this, not whether the vaccine should be administered to boys as well, not whether there are risks associated with the vaccine. No...the issue really should be "how have we degenerated to the point where we pacifically accept the fact that 12 year olds are engaged in sexual activity?"

The issue is more approriately, "Where are the parents?" "Are the parents incapable of teaching their daughters about the safe use of their bodies?" At least, ladies and gentlemen, before the age of 12? Sad, but true...some parents, many parents ARE incapable of teaching morals...OK! There is the word...morals and morality. I consider myself a very liberal person but when sexual activity is pushed toward the young age of 12 by default we will have youngsters who are not mature enough to understand the consequences and responsibility of sexual activity thrown into situations they cannot cope with. And I am not going to throw the age old cliché of "thrusting the financial responsibilty of their irresponsibility on society and decent tax payers."

No, I am not going to go that route...but I am going to denounce the vicious circle that is produced when irresponsible people become parents. They inevitably produce irresponsible children. We are living with the first and second generation of irresponsible children. How can we expect to survive as a society with another iterration of irresponsibility? Governor Perry...worry less about HPV and more about the society that is producing a state full of 12 year olds who are sexually active.