Paying teenage girls not to get pregnant?

I think this qualifies as the biggest WTF of my life.

I happened to stumble upon this news while watching the trustiest news station ever, CP24. Now here's what's going on:

GREENSBORO -- A buck-a-day -- that's the incentive being offered to young girls to keep them from getting pregnant... Brown said she hopes the program, which pays $1 each day to 12-to-18-year-old girls, will keep them from getting pregnant. In addition to remaining pregnancy-free, the girls must also attend weekly meetings. The program is funded by a four-year grant from the state... Under the program, $7 is deposited into an interest-bearing college fund that the girls can collect once they graduate high school. Some recent graduates earned more than $2,000 and are an inspiration to those still in the program... If a girl drops out or gets pregnant, her money is divided among the other girls still in the program.

This is ridiculous. You're giving someone an incentive for not doing something? What ever happened to hard-earned money? Hell, if I wasn't so pissed off by that I'd be glad to get money for something that wouldn't happen to me. You know why? Because I don't want it to. It's all about choice.

What gets me even more is the fact that a girl's money is divided among the others if she drops out or gets pregnant. There are no words that can be put to what's going on in my mind at the moment.

Let's try to compare it to this: It's like rewarding overweight kids for not having cake for the day. You can't really say that all overweight children will have cake. Some may choose to have cake. Others may hate cake and will avoid it at all costs. But why give money to overweight children for not eating cake? That's not solving the problem, it's just needless rewarding.

All I'm saying is this: That's definitely not the way to solve the problem.

Playing word toss sucks.

"Oh my god, that was so racist!"

"Well, how come you didn't pick girls this time? That's sexist!"

These are just some of the few word-slinging sentences that I've heard being used by younger children in my school. And I don't like it. In my gifted class is where I've seen it most, surprisingly. If I say that Andrew, a Vietnamese guy, is Asian, then Leena or some other junior-division student in the class will say "that's racist!" when it isn't. Here's the definition of racism.

/rā'sĭz'əm/

1. The belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others.
2. Discrimination or prejudice based on race.

Hmm...I don't think that I said that Andrew could do certain things because he was Asian, nor did I say that Blacks were superior to Asians. Racist? No. Observant? Yes! These days children like to repeat words they hear all over. And this isn't doing us any good. Just because I recognize that certain people come from certain backgrounds doesn't make me racist. Many people put forth their identity using their culture. The problem lies in training children to be tolerant and politically correct. Political correctness does two things to a child. One, it makes them over-aware of what they say and in result comes the "I Don't Mean To Be Racist, But..." phenomenon. I've heard that phrase too many times in my short, 14-year life.

" I don't mean to be racist, but last night, there was this episode of Family Guy where Cleveland was a taxi driver and he saw Brian and offered him a ride, but Brian used an excuse and said that he had to pick up milk for Lois. Isn't that funny?"

No, it's not.

So as a last statement I will say this:

If there is no intention behind your action, the action is at its worst, un-intentional.

Look before you leap.

So today I got in a serious three-hour Guitar Hero III session and my mind was trying to not explode in the midst of all the fast-paced high-octane mini-mines that were the screen frets. Then again, I was trying Hard for the first time.

My brother can be a bit of a touchy kid and possibly accidentally touched my uncle's crotch area.

My uncle also happens to be quite a complainer, so he told my grandmother to get him to stop.

My grandmother happens to be quite the yeller, so she consequentially and aggressively said "What is WRONG with you? Do you think he is a faggot?"

Ugh.
Ugh, ugh, ugh. Nothing in my life (in terms of put downs and other -ist terms) has ever bothered as much as that did. And I don't know why. I know that my grandma has a tendency to be a bit...how should I put it...discriminatory. And it comes off as offensive, but honestly she doesn't know better. But this just struck something that I never knew could be hit.

This reminds me of something else. My uncle, the complainer. He's probably the most homophobic and stereotypical of all in the family and it makes me mad. Of all the things in the world he is trying to do, it's teaching my brother to be "manly".

I want my uncle out of my house.

Well, God Said I Could!

Today was interesting.
Yet another in-class debate at Catechesis classes.

Basically it was about sex, gender roles, stereotypes, and generalizations. I do actually enjoy the conversations that we get into without even realizing it, but one thing bothered me.

We're Catholic and we're supposed to wait until we're married, right? So then there's no need for contraceptives!

Ugh. What my teacher, Maureen, didn't know was that despite what she said before about "at least four of the students in the room getting someone pregnant or becoming pregnant before high school" and what she had said before, there is a need for contraceptives. She basically proved herself wrong within a span of half an hour. You see, these hypothetical unwanted pregnancies wouldn't exist if people just thought about it.

Well, you know, we're having sex. But we're not married. I guess if we don't use contraception, we'll just be sinning less than we "already are"!

That's how the catholic church is training the teens to think. And that's where they're wrong. Maybe they just need something to blame. But thank god that my teacher, Mrs. Donoghue-Stanford, knows how NOT to force her ideals on such an impressionable group of people. Mrs. Donoghue says:

You MUST make an informed decision...take the information that you get from everyone: parents, teachers, friends, and other people that you look up to. The rest is between you and God.

Maybe other people may not agree with this, but I personally find this as some form of salvation after four years of no sex-ed at a time when everyone needs it most.