“Throw it out with the trash”
The West Wing: Take Out the Trash Day
(Season 1, Episode 13)CUT TO:
INT. OUTER OVAL OFFICE - DAY
Bartlet comes in and approaches Mrs. Landingham.BARTLET
Mrs. Landingham.
MRS. LANDINGHAM
Yes sir?
BARTLET
You're not going to believe this but
I think I'd actually like a banana.
MRS. LANDINGHAM
I'm afraid not sir, no.
BARTLET
Why not?
MRS. LANDINGHAM
You were offered one earlier, sir,
and you were snippy.
BARTLET
I wasn't snippy!
MRS. LANDINGHAM
I'm afraid you were, Mr. President.
[looking toward the oval office]
C.J.'s waiting, sir.
BARTLET
Thank you, Mrs. Landingham.He crosses into THE OVAL OFFICE and shuts the door.
BARTLET
She withholds food from me.
C.J.
Mr. President, I hate to keep
jumping up and down on this, but...
BARTLET
The sex-ed report.
C.J.
Yes sir.
BARTLET
We're gonna leave it alone
for a while.
C.J.
Sir, when you say...
BARTLET
[busy at his desk]
After the midterm elections.
C.J.
That's a year from now.
BARTLET
Yeah.
C.J.
We're gonna stick it in a drawer?
BARTLET
It's a pretty incendiary report.
C.J.
You don't think we have an obligation
to present the information?
BARTLET
[crosses out to stand in front of her]
It's not gonna play well at a
PTA meeting. It says
we should be teaching
kids to have sex.
C.J.
It does not, Mr. President, excuse
me sir, but it does not.
BARTLET
Of course it doesn't. But that's
how it's going to play.
C.J.
The report is very direct, sir,
it says with holding knowledge
about having sex doesn't
prevent teenagers from having sex,
it prevents teenagers from having
sex safely. And it says offering
information about safe sex doesn't
increase the rate of sex, it increases
the rate of protected sex.
BARTLET
[in a somewhat patronizing tone]
C.J.
C.J.
We commissioned this report, Mr. President.
These people are doctors; we asked them a
question. How can we put it in a drawer
just cause we don't think people are going to
like the answer?
BARTLET
C.J., getting it through this congress,
a body which at the moment, will only
give federal funding to sex education
programs that teach abstinence only.
C.J.
We have an enormous pulpit from which...
BARTLET
[raising his voice]
And we will avail ourselves of that
pulpit but we will do it after
the midterm elections.
C.J.
[a pause, realizes]
I think I understand.
BARTLET
I needed to get Leo off the hook, C.J.
C.J.
It's the deal Josh and Sam made.
BARTLET
Yes. We'll deal with it after
the midterm elections.
C.J.
I understand.
BARTLET
[back behind his desk]
I was hoping you would.
C.J.
Yes, sir. Yes, sir.
Umm, several members of the press
already know, I think, the report
came back to us and...
BARTLET
Yeah. Well there's nothing wrong
with telling them we got it. I wouldn't
make a big deal out of it. We got it,
we're looking at it, we're studying it.
Throw it out with the trash.
C.J.
Yes sir.
BARTLET
Thanks, C.J.
C.J.
Thank you sir.
[almost out the door, but stops and
turns back to face Bartlet]
Mr. President? We could all be better teachers.
BARTLET
I know.
C.J. leaves, as Bartlet removes his glasses, looking pensive.
In April 2007, the Bush Administration buried Impacts for Title V. Section 510, Abstinence Education Programs: Final Report, the report they commissioned on abstinence-only education which said...
IT DOESN'T WORK.
The Bush's threw it out with the trash.
The RH BlogTeenagers have sex.
The news for the Bush Adminstration's abstinence-only policies just seems to be getting worse, some might liken it to a swiftly sinking boat or ship.So a burial at sea is appropriate, and by releasing the latest federal report on abstinence-only, Impacts for Title V. Section 510, Abstinence Education Programs: Final Report, from Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. late on a Friday, that is exactly what the Bushies are doing.
“After 10 years and $1.5 billion in public funds these failed abstinence-only-until-marriage programs will go down as an ideological boondoggle of historic proportions,” said James Wagoner, President of Advocates for Youth.
“The tragedy is not simply the waste of taxpayer dollars, it is the damage done to the young people who have been on the receiving end of distorted, inaccurate information about condoms and birth control. We have been promoting ignorance in the era of AIDS, and that’s not just bad public health policy, its bad ethics”.
“This report should serve as the final verdict on the failure of the abstinence-only industry in this country,” said William Smith, vice president for public policy of the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the U.S. (SIECUS). “It shows, once again, that these programs fail miserably in actually helping young people behave more responsibly when it comes to their sexuality,” Smith continued.
With or without education, with or without promising to be pure, teenagers have sex.
The study found many kids (the fundies) tried to stay “pure” -- so they experimented.
This is how they experimented. (Slightly NSFW [words.])
But no...
Even though there is massive evidence it has never worked, the Bush Administration is running a national ad campaign promoting abstinence-only.
What next? Mediation over oil rights in Iraq?
I think the government should consider this special Mother-Daughter vibrator moment instead. (With a hell of a back story. *sighs*)
Oh wait... vibes are illegal to purchase in Alabama. Thanks U.S. Supreme Court. (We miss you Justice O'Connor.)
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