December 12, 1998 Kerry Dougherty Virginian Pilot 150 W. Brambleton Avenue Norfolk, VA 23510 Dear Ms. Dougherty: I am writing to express my complete disagreement with your article published in this Saturday�s newspaper. I can not believe that you could equate an attempt to protect your children from sexually transmitted diseases, many of which can be deadly, with providing them opportunities to harm themselves and to break the law [�good parents ought to have a bowl of cigarettes around the house�a cute little basket of hypodermic needles�you might as well stock the fridge with beers]. By allowing your children access to condoms you are doing the same thing as hiding the alcohol. We all know that many children will try a drink sometime before they are of legal age to do so, therefore we hide alcohol to help protect them. We also know that many children will attempt some sort of non-manual sexual activity before they reach the age of majority and therefore, we leave condoms available for them so they can be protected. Pause and think about this for just a moment. The one constant action here is easy to see: we are protecting the children from harm. I work at the Eastern Regional AIDS Resource and Consultation Center at Eastern Virginia Medical School. Although we do not provide direct patient care, we have affiliations with community organizations and medical clinics throughout the region. I have heard the stories of children, as young as 11 years old, coming to the pediatric clinic because they were exposed in some manner or another to HIV or another sexually transmitted disease. Our office has relationships with some people in the local school systems and I am very aware that there are a lot of adults, some parents and some not, in this community who will do whatever they can to prevent children from learning about sexual activity and its potential consequences. Ignorance combined with simple curiosity can be a deadly combination and it is people like you, Ms. Dougherty, who perpetuate this deadly idea that if we do not tell our children about sex and do not give them an avenue for safety then they will remain safe. Sex and sexuality are not exotic concepts to us anymore. Black kids, white kids, rich kids, poor kids, city kids, and suburban kids all need to know about sex, what it is, how it works, and how they can protect themselves not just by abstaining but by utilizing active precautions like condom usage. I hope that you will consider my comments. I encourage you to write back to me as I believe that healthy debate of this subject only helps us come up with more ways to make our children safer. Thank you. Sincerely, |