Sex week and guns - and more letters to the editors

Sex week and guns

When it comes to guns, Tennessee state senators have adopted a "wild West" mentality, but when it comes to sex they are living in the Victorian era.

These prudish attitudes have brought UT's "Sex Week" program under fire. Placing limitations on the student program sets a dangerous precedent that could implicate similar programs at the other state institutions.

In the absence of sexual health (education) in public high schools, many college students are misinformed. Honing in on a handful of events, senators have missed the big picture. The program calendar included information sessions that looked at sex and sexual health in a variety of perspectives, and, yes, the use of a drag show, aphrodisiac cooking class, and condom scavenger hunt were a few of the events.

What's wrong with approaching an often awkward topic with a little bit of humor, especially if it resonates with students and gives them the knowledge to make informed decisions when it comes to sex?

Instead, celebrate the fact that students want to provide creative education to their peers, and worry more about the possibility of creating potentially dangerous situations and driving families away from local parks by allowing hand- guns to be carried on to these properties!

HANNAH POWELL, Hixson


A crisis of family

The growing crisis of poverty in America had a local face put to it in the New York Times article about poverty in Chattanooga (March 18).

It is getting harder and harder to climb out of poverty, as the article's title proclaims. It worries me as a citizen because the people described are mine and everyone's neighbors.

Why is the crisis happening? I believe the answer lies in the article's statement that "women head about two-thirds of the city's poor households, and 42 percent of the city's children are poor."

In other words, it is a crisis of the family, the breakdown of two parents raising each child to maturity with the ability to take care of him or herself.

A stable, two-parent family raises children who know they are expected to work at learning, which is their job in school. They then learn the skills the schools are teaching and so become capable of taking care of themselves in this world.

Society must focus on supporting and growing two-parent families who then raise to adulthood the responsible, contributing adults we all want in society.

JOHN HUBBARD

Upcoming Events