This is probably one of the reasons that I identify with Barack. That is exactly how I spent my last two years of high school (except for the basketball, I was a musician,) and got an A in every subject, was the lead actor in the drama club, leading contributor to the literary magazine, runner-up for homecoming king, a librarian from ages 16 thru 18, and guitarist for the highest paid local band in the tri-state area until I moved back to the upper midwest. And never got any of my girlfriends pregnant, because, even in those days, I was taught by my divorced, mentally unstable mother that abstinence is a bad bet and birth control was 99% fail-safe.When he was 17 years old, Obama was "doing blow, getting high, and getting drunk," and he has written about it! When we hear about Obama's life journey, these are considered growing experiences and obstacles he overcame, part of a greater story.
"I spent the last two years of high school in a daze, locking away the questions that life seemed insistent on posing. I kept playing basketball, attended classes sparingly, drank beer heavily, tried drugs enthusiastically. I discovered that it didn't make any difference whether you smoked reefer in the white classmate's sparkling new van or in the dorm room with some brother you met down at the gym."
This is all said, not to toot my own horn, but to illustrate that, for some people, doing drugs and living a relaxed, fun lifestyle during high school, etc. is not the doorway to damnation and ruin. And if we can be adult enough to realize that teenagers will not be prevented from having sex solely(we are all basically animals, after all) by being an evangelical Christian, by scaring them, by not talking about it, nor by telling them to abstain, but tell them - for goodness sake, helping them to understand birth control methods, there would be little need for abortions, much fewer unwed teenage parents, diseases, and less of our children's childhoods and dreams cut short by having to give up their lives to raise another.
I'm interested to know everyone else's thoughts on this subject.
What a cool family we have created.
