Mom! Look how the Humans react!!!
As you may know (I think Mishi knows...), I wrote into the Alligator with my "opinion" regarding an article they printed in the editorial section on Friday.
It was printed on Monday, and today were the reactions, and my title speaks of my reaction.I found it hillarious, for numerous reasons:
One, they misinterpreted my article. I was not writing in saying that Gardasil will promote female promisciousity. I wrote in rebuttal to the words of Texas Governor Rick Perry, as well as the actions of the Florida Legislature. Making a "miracle drug" required for all school girls is a bit absurd. Also, Governor Perry made the analogy that you can only get lung cancer from smoking and hepatitis B from doing drugs. Anyone here know someone by the name of Dana Reeve? The Wife of Superman, who on March 6, 2006, died from lung cancer. She never smoked...Yet she died from a "smoker's disease." I guess Dana was one of those closet chain smokers...She must of if she had lung cancer.
But what of Hepatitis B, you ask? A friend of mine was born with Hepatitis B, because his mother had received Hepatitis B through a blood transfusion after she was in a car accident: The donor of the blood apparently had it, and somehow, the infected blood made its way into the American Red Cross Bloodbank, and into her veins. So I guess him and his mother are both drug addicts, I mean, after all, they have a disease you can only get through doing drugs, right?
HPV? There is only one way you can contract it, and it isn't by shaking hands...Well, you could get it, but it depends on what exactly you were shaking. You get HPV by having sex with someone who has been infected with HPV from a previous encounter with someone who has been infected with HPV from a previous encounter with someone who has been infected with HPV from a previous encounter with someone...Do we see a pattern?
Two, all of the responses said that it will have no effect on sexual promisciousity, and that the vaccine will not promote sex. Did I even say that in my letter? What I said was, and of course I quote, "Requiring young women to receive a false hope of a 'miracle drug' which protects them from cervical cancer MAY have a negative effect in the promotion of sex." I said MAY, not WILL. Even the headline of the letter says, "HPV vaccine may promote promiscuity." Did you miss that? I am not saying it will promote promisciousity, but that it MAY. The only reason I say this is because after a conversation with one of my wonderful college female friends (You know who you are...) she decided that now that she has completed the vaccination process, she is safe to have sex again. Granted it was one person, but given she represents the majority of UF women (Blond, Sorority, Jackass of a Boyfriend), I would not express shock and dismal disarray if this was a prevalent process of pondering amongst a majority of UF women. Back on topic: Perhaps it is just me, but have all Americans simply lost the ability to read and comprehend? I mean, perhaps if i tYpEd LiEk tHiS, mAyb tHeY wOoD uNdErStAN wHt im sAyIn, but still. Have some mastery of the language you speak everyday.
Three...Some parts of what I submitted were edited out. I can understand why: You needed to fit it in a prescribed space, and wanted it to fit the 150 word limit. I am known from time to time to be a bit verbous, but it is only because I have great respect and a decent level of mastery in this language we call English. Editing out what I had originally wrote may have contributed to the responses, but the basic jist of the article was achieved, so I hold no blade over the heads of the Alligator Editors.Thank you for at least printing what I wrote: A testament to American Free Speech.
Some of my favourite responses to my little letter:
*This Vaccination is very effective in preventing cervical cancer from the most high-risk strains of HPV. This is the closest to a "miracle drug" we have ever seen. It prevents cancer!
~~ Katie Stephens.
Well, Katie. Suffice to say...Gardasil does not prevent cervical cancer. Listen to the bloody commerical. "Gardasil does not protect you against cervical cancer." So, a vaccine which prevents cervical cancer does not protect against cervical cancer? Interesting logic, I must say. Again, Gardasil protects you against four strains out of the thirty known HPV strains, of which only two have a 70% of causing cervical cancer. The vast majority of HPV infections go away unnoticed, and very rarely do they cause HPV (National Cancer Institute: http://www.cancer.gov/newscenter/benchmarks-vol2-issue4/page2 ), so it is similar to sitting in a tank when you are in a room with ten thousand blind folded people, 9,999 have water guns and one has a .50 cal., and they are all spinning around really fast. Chances are you will get squirted with some water, and if you are lucky, a buller....
Another from Katie:
*Whether Bove would consider me promiscious or not, I am receiving the first of three shots Thursday.
I do not know you, but based on that, best of luck. Hope you have not already caught it.
*To withhold a vaccine from women with the hope that it will stop them from having sex is absurd
~~Philip Weber.
Did I say withhold the vaccine? Was the word "withhold" even in my letter? I think not: I said that making it a requirement may have a negative effect on the promotion of sex. I am not saying we should gather up every garnish of Gardasil and not give it to anyone. By all means, give it to every loose whore out there and protect them. But requiring it to be given to my nine-year old niece, who does not even know what "sex" is, is a bit odd. Maybe when she is fifeteen, and dating some punk you can get it to her, especially if my brother educates her properly on sex, but at nine? That is like giving a condom to some ten year old boy: What is he going to do with it? Make a balloon?
*However, it is important to remember that while it is rather silly to think about someone forcing a lit cigarette into someone's mouth, that doesn't hold true for intercourse. Sex without consent is real, and it does happen.
~~Raymond Cho
Interesting...Let us do the math. What are the chances of a woman being raped? Between 16% to 50% depending on the area. I say in Gainesville, you have a 25% chance, moderate. What are the chances the guy who rapes you has HPV? I found numbers from 1.3% all the way up to 73.6%! After a bit more reading, the majority of studies found the average to be 20%. Also, with every sexual act with someone infected, you have a 64% (University of Pravia, Italy: http://www.greenjournal.org/cgi/content/full/93/4/475 ) of contracting HPV So, a little basic math.
You have a 1/4 chance of being raped, and a 1/5 chance of getting a guy with HPV, and a 3/5 chance of getting it...(1/4) x (1/5) x (3/5)= 1/100, or a 1% chance...I have a better chance of stepping out into traffic and getting hit by a drunk driver at noon than you do of getting raped by someone with HPV and contracting it. Maybe you are right, Raymond...I should walk around in a Giant Padded Suit to protect myself against drunk drivers at noon.
My personal favourite:
*Perhaps if Mr. Bove had a uterus, such a development would be as importnat to him as it is to me.
~~Kristen Lang, President of Vox: Voices for Planned Parenthood.
I did not know having a uterus changes how you think? I mean, I know it can get you a criminal insane plea if you murder someone while you are on your period, but really? I never know. I guess calling this vaccine, "a tremendous step in the right direction for preventive medicne," was showing how unimportant I view the development of a vaccine against a solely sexually-transmitted disease. If I had a uterus (meaning I was either a woman or some freak of nature) you can guarentee I would take as much care of it as I do my current piece of equipment. I would not allow anything I do not personally own to be inserted into it, that is for sure. I would not allow some strange guy I met when I was lonely bang me in the back of his bus just so he can never call, and I would certainly not be having sex. Much as I am now, I know the vast amount of risk entailed with having sex: Believe me, of all the crazy and dangerous things I have done in my twenty years of life, none of them compare in danger to the simple two minute act of consumation, in regards to my present and future life.
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Now I know Katie, Philip, Raymond, and Kristen will probably never even see this little note I took five minutes to write, but still, it makes me feel better to get that off my chest.
My Article: Check other update.
Link to the Articles today:
http://www.alligator.org/pt2/opinion.php
Cheers!