Lucille Yuen

I am deeply troubled to learn that you are abolishing abstinence education from Ohio’s public schools. I believe that doing this is grossly unfair to our youth. They need respect for the marriage bed reinforced, not the opposite. Practicing abstinence before marriage puts a discipline in place that affects one’s attitudes toward others, protects one’s psychological and physical health, and will help preserve one’s marital relationship later.

Marriage and the family is the bedrock of society. It is within these institutions that people have the best chance to be emotionally healthy, learn how to behave and become homogenous members of society at large. People fail the institutions, not the other way around. I believe impressionable young people should receive moral reinforcement at school for abstinence before marriage not only to protect them emotionally and physically on the personal level, but to preserve the family. Our young people will carry the torch as adults from the past into the future. What they do with marriage and family will either tend to preserve their local communities and more broadly, keep the nation or not. Sexual abstinence is about self control, respect for others in relationships and responsible provision for the product of sexual union. Truthfully, our young people need to learn about that more than ever. There are many forces pulling at them today that are confusing, that are indeed sometimes even counter-productive and damaging.

Therefore, I believe measures you have initiated to dismantle abstinence education since taking office do not serve Ohio’s public school students well. In fact, it is a travesty for our children and for the future of Ohio, and I urge you to restore funding for Abstinence Education to encourage the important, truthful message that avoiding casual sex is the only sure way to avoid the physical and emotional risks associated with irresponsible behavior.

Yesterday I had a longing to get some ‘50s vintage music for my birthday party on Saturday, so hubby and I perused the music at Barnes and Noble, Best Buy and then at Circuit City.

The really nice thing about Barnes and Noble is that you can listen to the selections you are considering buying. Yeah, but, their music selections are expensive. Yet, I decided that it was worth it to see what they had. Great choices—especially the album of three discs with the top singers of the ‘50s era. Not the rock ‘n roll singers, but notables like Louis Armstrong, Rosemary Clooney, Perry Como, Doris Day, Peggy Lee, Jonny Mathis, Dean Martin, et al. Top artists with top songs—listenable music with words you can understand, and clean sentiments. I mean, the album even has “The Glow Worm.” What’s that? I barely remember the name. Well, I now own this album, which cost with a discount $48.03, which I refused to buy right away. Sticker shock.

We decided to go to Best Buy, which wouldn’t let you listen to anything and wouldn’t let you return it if it was a lemon. Oh, you can go online and listen to facsimiles, but I had bought a “Fabulous ‘50s” CD at Wal-Mart the day before for $7.00, and after I got it home and played it, it put off a kind of tinny or echo-ey sound. Was planning to return it, and didn’t want to make the same mistake at any other store—especially if they don’t let you return it (because they know about sneaky people who download their CDs and get their money back, leaving the store with a used CD they can’t sell).

Decided to visit Circuit City. They had CDs by Madacy with UV22 applied technology so that their recordings will “retain virtually all the detail of the high-resolution source, preserving the sound-stage and tonal balance of the original, without the need for a special decoder.” Sounded like a winner, so I bought “Happy Days ‘50s and ‘60s.” I wanted recordings of the rock ‘n roll I remembered from my teen years, and this one had actually been advertised on TV a while back (which I remembered, but refused to consider buying because they were expensive then). Still the CD was almost $14.00. It didn’t have some of the funny songs that another Madacy recording had, so I bought that one, too—$6.99. Ok, so now I have all these ‘50s songs, from rock to pop. How do I feel after behaving in such a gluttonous way? I’m as happy as a puppy that just had a bowl of warm milk! Ya know what, I plan to dance at my party Saturday, and everyone is invited to join me!