LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Keep Free To Be
Editor: In response to “Wise decision” (Sonoma West, Jan. 13,
2011), I think the WSCUHSD should keep the Free To Be program as a
part of their new comprehensive, scientific, medically accurate sex
education instruction.
Pop culture today uses sex to get peoples’ attention.
Advertising, TV, movies and the music industry all know that if you
throw in a little sex, more people watch/listen. The goal is not to
portray reality, and nobody means for pop culture to become our
children’s teachers. But young people are susceptible to thinking
that this sex-filled culture is reality. They are inclined to think
that if they don’t participate in the culture of sex they see
around them, there might be something wrong with them.
If our district truly wants to be “at the forefront of
protecting and promoting the health of California’s young people”
they will want to make sure that all young people know that sexual
activity is not required to become a mature young adult. But rather
that sex is always a choice.
Let’s give them a program like Free To Be that gives them real
discussion with real young people who have an alternative to the
message of pop culture. Let’s give them a program like Free To Be
that gives them real tools to help them say “no” when pop culture
is telling them “yes.”
Then, our students will really have a choice. They may chose to
say “no” for today, for their high school years, until they marry
or not at all, but I can’t see how teaching our students how to use
abstinence, like we teach them how to use a condom, could be
construed as anything but educational.
Kathy Taylor
Sebastopol
Words have consequences
Editor: If you grew up, as I did, chanting “sticks and stones
may break my bones but words can never hurt me” by now you know
nothing could be further from the truth. Words have consequences.
There is ample evidence; well documented in our history that ill
chosen words issued in the heat of argument has often led to tragic
results.
With today’s vast and instantaneous worldwide forms of
communication the effect of our words, if not carefully chosen, can
have disastrous effects especially on unstable minds and
personalities. Following the senseless tragedy in Tucson, AZ we
have to do more than appoint committees to study whys and
wherefores of the case. It is time for the American public to
examine how accepting we have become of violence as a form of
entertainment. 
Our TV and Radio shows are filled with confrontation. The uglier
and more outrageous the better. Some of the highest paid radio and
TV talk show hosts depend on atrocious statements for their vast
popularity. The American public needs to acknowledge the fact that
in part they are condoning violence. If the thousands and thousands
of these viewers suddenly stopped tuning in to these shows
advertisers would drop like dominoes and so would the shows. If it
doesn’t pay it won’t play.
Changing stations will not stop all the senseless killing, but
it would be one positive step in assessing our values. It is up to
our elected officials to do the heavy work of correcting our gun
laws — Arizona’s are among the most lax in the country — but they
can’t and won’t do it unless the public indicates strong support
for change.
Law abiding citizens do not need semi-automatic guns in their
households for protection. What is needed is a strong commitment by
all of our citizens, regardless of political ideology, to behave in
a reasonable manner in settling our differences of opinion.
I thought the President’s speech at the memorial services for
the six people killed in Tucson, including a Federal Judge, an aid
to Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, and a nine-year old girl, were on the
mark when he asked us to make this country what that child dreamed
and believed it to be.
It is long past time for the violence to stop. Correction has to
start at the bottom with all of us who believe you can have
differences of opinion without resorting to vitriolic and hateful
words or actions. I am like the nine year-old girl. I believe we
can do it. In fact we have to do it if we want a fair and decent
society to survive in this country.
Lucy Jensen
Healdsburg