[McCain's] sex education ad referred to legislation Obama voted for -- but did not sponsor -- in the Illinois Senate that allowed school boards to develop "age-appropriate" sex education courses at all levels. Kindergarten teachers were given the approval to teach about appropriate and inappropriate touching to combat molestation.
The McCain advertisement calls it "Obama's one accomplishment" in education: "legislation to teach comprehensive sex education to kindergartners."
"Learning about sex before learning to read? Barack Obama, wrong on education, wrong for your family," the ad concludes.
[Update: And if this doesn't lose your vote, then what would? Are they really such staunch defenders of free market principles and fiscal responsibility that you're willing to overlook this despicable garbage?]
[Update II: I'm modulating my outrage down one notch, from a 5-out-of-5 to a 4, since the statute doesn't explicitly limit topics for kindergartners to inappropriate touch. But the ad is inaccurate and conveys a false impression by using the phrase "comprehensive sex education" without mentioning the requirement that info be "age appropriate". And I'm confident that one of the purposes of the ad is to tap into racist attitudes about the hypersexualization of black people. We'll see more of this, I predict.
The extent to which schools should be responsible for teaching sex ed is something about which reasonable people can disagree and it would be completely appropriate to run an ad that accurately characterizes Obama's position: that age-appropriate sex ed belongs in the schools starting with kindergarten. But that's not what the ad does.
It's appropriate for Obama's campaign to point out that one reason to be in favor of this bill would be that it would get info into the hands of kindergartners about inappropriate touch. I'm looking at an ABC news story from 2007 that won't allow copy/paste that shows Obama isn't pretending the ONLY thing the bill did w/r/t kindergarten was to teach inappropriate touch. But pointing out this benefit of the legislation and this reason to be in favor of it is not the same thing as denying that the bill provides for age-appropriate sex ed for kindergartners. If he denies that, shame on him.]
9 comments:
I believe there's more to the story than the Post is telling you.
Of course that ad was crap. And what will happen, and both sides do this, is that McCain will claim that he didn't know anything about it and when he did, he had it removed. I was wondering when the campaigns would get into the gutter - it's gotten there much sooner than I had thought. And yes, I used the plural - both sides are wallowing (no pun intended) in it.
Both of you need to read my new post and respond.
The ad is accurate and McCain will not withdraw it.
I expect he won't withdraw it. The problem is that by leaving out the fact that the bill calls for "age-appropriate" info, it implies that the bill demands that schools teach kindergartners everything there is to know ("comprehensive") about sex. And, more insidiously, it says Obama is in favor of teaching such stuff instead of reading. "You know those black people -- they're just all about the sex", is the subtext. And that's just rotten to the core.
"You know those black people -- they're just all about the sex", is the subtext.
You absolutley must be kidding. You've gone way way over the edge if you really think that.
It pains me to agree with a rightie, but I just don't see the black/hypersex subtext on this. It's all about sex-ed to k-schooler's.
Okey doke. We'll keep an eye on it.
Okey doke. But I'm keeping my eyes open for it.
Post a Comment