Small Things

Should a school give birth control to your sixth grader? (Reason #83 that I believe in universal school vouchers.)

I am so dumbfounded by a Maine schoolboard's decision to provide free and confidential birth control pills and patches to middle schoolers, I have a hard time even addressing it with any clarity! I can't possibly be the only one, and so I hope that the many parents who stay silent on such an issue do so only because they are so in shock they are speechless.

Free condoms for minors I am not crazy about either, but I know that has been widely available for awhile. I "get" the argument, safe sex if their gonna have it anyway, and all that. But for a schoolboard to decide that a child can use systemic, hormornal birth control without parental consent . . . a form of birth control that demands discipline to be effective, something that is likely to be lacking in a preteen who decided to have sex . . . for educated, experienced adults in charge of our schools to approve that just blows my mind.

I would pull my kids out of that school system so fast the ink wouldn't even be dry on my job application at the Ruby Tuesday's where I'd have to go back to waitressing to help pay for private school tuition.

At the Foxnews.com page where I read the article about the schoolboard decision, there was a loud banner across the top proclaiming that a long-sought pedophile had finally been arrested. There was yet another article in a sidebar about another pedophile. Can anyone wonder why pedophiles are suddenly everywhere when schools are teaching our kids that eleven-year-olds (eleven-year-olds!!) are capable of consent and entitled to birth control?

PLEASE somebody comment on this one and reassure me that I'm not the only one disgusted.

Do lapel pins matter to you?

On The O'Reilly Factor tonight, Bill O'Reilly invited email comments on whether you care if someone wears a flag lapel pin. I decided to respond:

Mr. O'Reilly,

No, I don't care whether someone wears a flag lapel pin, but rejecting it to make a "statement" is something different. My husband, a Navy pilot in Iraq, wears the American flag on his shoulder every single day, and to our servicemen, that means something. To them, rejecting the flag is a protest that demeans their allegiance to that flag. How could they ever view someone making that "statement" as Commander-in-Chief material?

Kristi Vega

Proud Navy Spouse

Virginia Beach, Virginia

Who knows wether that's pithy enough for Bill. I've been thinking this for days, all I needed was the invitation.