Children are the future ?!?!?

Despite the warm and fuzzies that the above picture may give you, there is nothing funny about my message in this blog. It was brought to my attention that recently a team of health officials went to a local high school out here in California. Now for legal reason I will not mention the name in case of a possible litigation flare up because folks sue for just about anything.

The team was sent to this school to administer physicals and raise awareness of sexually transmitted diseases. Parents were outraged at what this committee found because they knew nothing about what was going on in thier teens lives because there was no communication. These parents did not talk to thier children and thier kids did not talk to them. Upon the conclusions of thier test they found the following:

Children were suffering from diabetes
They were suffereing from high blood pressure (One had to be immediately hospitalized for fear of having a heart attack or stroke)
They were suffering from drug dependency

The above mentioned items are not really that shocking and should be common knowledge to most of you. The surgeon general as well as other agencies have preached on the importance of diet and excercise and speaking to your children about drug use and dependency. What had my mouth formed into a perfect O is that the student population had almost 100 students that tested positive for HIV and other STD's .

Almost 100 youths at one school. More scary is that they did not know. This frightened and saddened me at the same time. To be so young and hopeful yet to know that your life will be shortened even further and to have a disease that you can never be rid of. I understand that most of those kids will be cured with simple antibiotics. But what of those who are HIV positive and will have to be on the cocktail? I realize that it is extending lives but what life is it when you do not have the choice to procreate or to love freely.

Now the course of thier life is dictated and they are not even old enough to vote yet. Teenage boys always talk about using condoms but the reality is that when a poll was given, neither the teenage boys nor girls enjoy the sensation of the latex and therefore will not use them especially if there is no pressure from thier partner to do so.

I guess that I am rambling. I don't have any children of my own but I have helped raise other people's children and they have turned out fine because I communicated to them. This generation of children needs blunt honesty. It has been left to its own devices and cable television too long. We as parents/guardians/role models need to be honest and listen to our kids even when they are not directly talking to us.

It is those silent signals and the retreating into themselves that we need to see.

Because eventhough those signs are not vocal they often speak the loudest.