1) Safe Drinking
With all the controversies over binge drinking at many colleges, Colby College has an innovative approach.
http://news.mainetoday.com/apwire/D88U6VS00-77.shtml
It is true that it's unrealistic to expect college students to not drink. While abstaining from alcohol is ideal (which I follow), many young adults will experiment regardless of the rules.
So in the real world, you sometimes got to go with the lesser of 2 evils. Colby College approach of having a moderate-alcohol sipping event is better than putting our heads in the sand while the kids are binge drinking and thumbing their noses at the rules.
However, the Colby College experiment might lead to a hook-up leading to a date rape. Though it would be worse at a "F--- the rules frat party".
2) Safe Sex
The Colby College situation is similar to giving out condoms at public schools.
The ultra-conservatives put their heads in the sand and say that giving out condoms is encouraging sex. In reality, it is going with "lesser of 2 evils" which is 1) kids having sex without condoms or 2) kids having sex with condoms. Kids will have sex regardless of the rules, regardless of all the conservative correctness they heard all their lives from parents, ministers, teachers, pundits, etc. So might as well go with "lesser of 2 evils" and give out condoms.
3) Safe Needles
Another similar issue is giving free clean needles to drug addicts
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/03/24/needle_exchange/index.html
AND
Again, while the ideal is not injecting drugs in the 1st place, we must deal with reality as it is - people will experiment with drugs regardless of laws and "just say no" campaigns. In that situation - pick the lesser of 2 evils - 1) watch addicts inject themselves with dirty needles and get infected with AIDS or 2) give them a clean needle to reduce the prevalence of HIV.
Plus, for many addicts, the most humane people they meet up are those giving clean needles. The drug dealers just want to exploit their misery, the cops have to arrest them, others avoid them. Those giving clean needles are likely to hook them up with drug treatment programs.
4) Safe Sports
The alcohol, sex and needle situation can be applied to sports.
We dont tell kids not to play football. We give them shoulder pads, jock straps, mouth guards and helmets.
5) Conclusion
While it's ideal that kids dont try alcohol , premartial sex or drugs, people will try them. So we might as well make those situations safer. If not, the kids will defy the rules and be in a more dangerous situation.
With all the controversies over binge drinking at many colleges, Colby College has an innovative approach.
http://news.mainetoday.com/apwire/D88U6VS00-77.shtml
Colby College, a private liberal arts college where students 21 and older get together on Friday nights in a school cafeteria to learn about and drink beer and wine.
The get-togethers are intended to teach students how to imbibe in moderation and how to imbibe well. The emphasis is to savor, not swill.
Colby officials say the program is just one component of the college´s alcohol education efforts.
"We´ve gotten overwhelmingly positive responses," said Janice Kassman, dean of students. "There are some who say the college should take a just-say-no approach, but I don´t think that´s realistic."
It is true that it's unrealistic to expect college students to not drink. While abstaining from alcohol is ideal (which I follow), many young adults will experiment regardless of the rules.
So in the real world, you sometimes got to go with the lesser of 2 evils. Colby College approach of having a moderate-alcohol sipping event is better than putting our heads in the sand while the kids are binge drinking and thumbing their noses at the rules.
However, the Colby College experiment might lead to a hook-up leading to a date rape. Though it would be worse at a "F--- the rules frat party".
2) Safe Sex
The Colby College situation is similar to giving out condoms at public schools.
The ultra-conservatives put their heads in the sand and say that giving out condoms is encouraging sex. In reality, it is going with "lesser of 2 evils" which is 1) kids having sex without condoms or 2) kids having sex with condoms. Kids will have sex regardless of the rules, regardless of all the conservative correctness they heard all their lives from parents, ministers, teachers, pundits, etc. So might as well go with "lesser of 2 evils" and give out condoms.
3) Safe Needles
Another similar issue is giving free clean needles to drug addicts
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/03/24/needle_exchange/index.html
No study has ever found that the existence of needle exchange motivates addicts to keep taking drugs -- in fact, most find that syringe-exchange users are more likely than other addicts to seek treatment.
AND
Under the conservative government of Margaret Thatcher, it rapidly implemented clean-needle measures in response to the outbreak of AIDS, starting in 1986. HIV prevalence has rarely reached more than 1 percent among intravenous drug users there, compared with over 50 percent at the epidemic's peak in New York.
Again, while the ideal is not injecting drugs in the 1st place, we must deal with reality as it is - people will experiment with drugs regardless of laws and "just say no" campaigns. In that situation - pick the lesser of 2 evils - 1) watch addicts inject themselves with dirty needles and get infected with AIDS or 2) give them a clean needle to reduce the prevalence of HIV.
Plus, for many addicts, the most humane people they meet up are those giving clean needles. The drug dealers just want to exploit their misery, the cops have to arrest them, others avoid them. Those giving clean needles are likely to hook them up with drug treatment programs.
4) Safe Sports
The alcohol, sex and needle situation can be applied to sports.
We dont tell kids not to play football. We give them shoulder pads, jock straps, mouth guards and helmets.
5) Conclusion
While it's ideal that kids dont try alcohol , premartial sex or drugs, people will try them. So we might as well make those situations safer. If not, the kids will defy the rules and be in a more dangerous situation.
