Meandering Starre

As a runner, I am very careful about what I put on my feet when running. I am also a bit of a shoe horse and love funky shoes of the heeled sort. However, I do not combine the heels with the running. That would be insane, right?

Well, regardless there is a stiletto heel race for women in Amsterdam. It is not too long, 380-yards, but the stilettos must be at least 3.5 inches! Sounds like torture to me! In fact, I think my facial expression would be the same as the woman in second place.

The prize is $15,000 and the winner, when asked how she would spend the prize, smartly said she would spend it on “anything but high heels.”

Image from CNews.

I could rant for quite a while about how true this comic is. In stead (beyond these few words), I’ll let it speak for itself:

Now that I am not running off to lunch, I want to provide a few comments on the post I made yesterday on the Portland Maine middle school providing birth control (including pills) to students. Now I am a firm supporter of good sex ed programs in schools. I had a good sex ed program in my Maine schools (female/male basics in 5th grade and a health class in HS, I think that is it). At the time I was not impressed, but since then I have realized this is much more than many received. I do not see how teaching sex ed and making birth control available forces, or even encourages, people to have sex. People (kids, teens, adults) will have sex anyway. We have proof enough of that. And abstinence only does not work. Lubbock, Texas, with its abstinence only program, had higher teen pregnancy rates and STD rates than where I grew up. I could discuss this issue forever, but as I am trying towards brevity on this blog, I won’t.

Instead I’ll go back to reacting to the article. As the article shows, these kids are having sex and getting pregnant—17 pregnancies in the area middle schools over the past 4 years. These numbers are scary. While I do feel middle school is too young for sex, it is far too young (especially in this day and age) to be pregnant. And it is far too young to decide to not be pregnant. These are issue our middle school students should not have to worry about. If the birth control methods make any difference, even in one middle schooler’s life, then it is worth it. One less middle school pregnancy, one less abortion, one less kid making adult decisions.

I also think we need to go deeper to the root of this issue. Why are these kids having sex? Is our culture somehow encouraging it? Do they understand really what they are doing? Have they had the education to know what sex can lead to? To know it is okay to say “no”? This is another area I could talk more on.

But, to one last point–I love the fact they are doing more than condoms. Providing pills and patches puts the power of birth control firmly into the hands of the females, who will be the most impacted by a pregnancy. These do not, of course, protect against STDs, and I do not see the article discussing STDs. But they do give control to the female and this is a good thing.

I don’t have time to wax poetic, or even really offer much opinion on this right now (off to a lunch date), but I had to post this news item. According to CNN, a middle school in Portland Maine is providing a full range of birth control (including pills!) to middle school students! This is due to an “outbreak” of pregnancies among middle school girls. The students need parental permission to go to the health center, but once there their ”treatment” is fully confidential.