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For those that have missed the story out of Oak Ridge, TN – home of the Atomic Bomb, ORNL, TN’s best public schools, the spallation neutron source, and a supercomputer center -, the principal of Oak Ridge High School pulled all the copies of the student newspaper – The Oak Leaf – due to a story about birth control and a piece on tattoo’s and piercing. The principal contends that the articles were too explicit Full Story at the Knoxville News Sentinel Here

Today I am not going to weigh in on either side of the debate regarding publication or not. That is a argument for another time and place. No, today I want to do is address / question the intellectual honesty of one of the arguments for release and publication of the story on birth control that I have heard.

A bit of background first, the piece on birth control was written by Krystal Meyers. Ms Meyers and the other students involved have consulted with the ACLU and the Student Press Law Center for legal aid and guidance on the issue. I would say in situations like this that is normal and expected. What I am questioning is the inclusion of the ACLU when Ms. Meyers father is arguing that the publication of the piece is worthwhile if even one teen pregnancy or transmission of a STD is prevented. I questions this because the ACLU is against torture, even if one or more lives would be saved.

How can you argue that publication of a article is just if even one teen pregnancy or STD transmission is prevented and then seek support from a group that says torture is wrong, even if multiple lives are saved? Is there not a conflict of thought there? Are we to assume that the prevention of one pregnancy or preventing one STD from being transmitted is more important then preventing a act of terrorism?

I understand and believe that teen pregnancy and STD’s are problems. I know that most teen parents do not reach their full potential due to the needs and demands of parenting. However, I also know that the prevention of terrorism is a important issue nationwide and is vital for all safety of all citizens. Typically people die when a act of terrorism or a attack on our soldiers occurs, while when a teen becomes pregnant their life is not over. Teen pregnancy is also much more personal and impacts the lives / families of only those involved.

Understand I am not arguing for or against publication or for or against torture. I am asking for intellectual honesty in the challenge. If preventing one pregnancy is vital to our freedom and security then I would assume that preventing one act of terrorism would be just as important to our freedom and security, yet to the ACLU that is not true. It seems that the ACLU feels that the free publication of a student newspaper in Oak Ridge is more important then getting information from a enemy combatant / terrorist. That seems to be a bit to me. I would ask Mr Meyers to seek aid from a group that is more consistent in the application of their views and opinions across the board, or to no longer argue that preventing one pregnancy / STD transmission is sufficient to justify publication.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 29th, 2005 at 11:10 am and is filed under Current / General, Family, Local, News, Personal, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.