YOU DON'T HAVE TO DANCE

I have no intention of trying to defend Rush Limbaugh. He has fared pretty well so far without my help and he will probably do okay without me now. That having been said, I thought his recent comments were stupid. His choice of words was ridiculous. If you didn’t hear, he basically referred to a young law school co-ed in very unfavorable terms. In her testimony before Congress the girl tried to point out that young law students just couldn’t afford to pay tuition and be expected to pay  for their birth control too, and that is why the government should. Limbaugh’s point was that if the tax payers have to pay for her birth control, she should be required to make available to those taxpayers films of her sexual activity. He called her dirty names and in so doing failed to make his point about free contraception. Limbaugh has since apologized for his comments and well he should.

This sort of activity and rhetoric does very little to advance the conservative position that we should be self-reliant and responsible for ourselves. To this young lady I would just say, if you are going to dance, you should have to pay the band. After all, you don’t have to dance. If you are mature enough to have sex, you by all means should be mature enough to cover whatever expenses you may incur and responsible enough to deal with the outcome of your activity.  Personally I don’t care if you choose to sleep around. I don’t care if you see higher education as party time. I don’t care about any of this as long as you pay your own way. If your parents are financing your education, what you do is their problem, not mine. The idea that taxpayers should fund your sexual activities is arrogant and just plain stupid.

I wonder sometimes how and why we have come to the place where we now are. How have we come to the decision that pregnancy is somehow a disease? When my wife and I were expecting our first child in the 60s, pregnancy was not even covered by our health insurance because pregnancy was considered normal, certainly not a disease. How is it that birth control is now considered health care? I just heard Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services for the Obama Administration, say that birth control reduces health care costs because fewer babies are born. It would appear that this administration doesn’t see these new people as possible contributors to our society or to our economic engine. I guess, be fruitful and multiply is just ancient philosophy.

I have written before that we today have the government we chose. These people we have in positions of importance and power are people we have chosen. If, as it turns out, they are morons, what does that say about our ability to choose?

Fortunately we have the opportunity to fix the mess we have gotten ourselves into. That is what elections are all about. Every two years we get to change out the House of Representatives and every six years we have the opportunity to get rid of the Senate. Each four years the President has to face the voters for their approval. We are rapidly approaching that time again. We absolutely must not fail. Another four years of what is going on now may just be the straw on the proverbial camel’s back. The world is counting on all of us.

Ron Scarbro March 14, 2012