This page was last updated on June 9, 2011.
Get with the times; Lynn Coleman [Gardner]; Beaver County Times; June 9, 2011. Though the letter was signed “Lynn Coleman,” I’m guessing this is the same author who signed her name “Lynn Coleman Gardner,” also of White Township, to previous letters. If any readers know differently, please let me know.
Previous letters from Ms. Gardner are here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.
“Sarah Palin hasn’t said whether she’s running for the presidency, and I believe her bus tour is more of an attention-getter.”
[RWC] I continue to get a kick out of the fact so many (most?) on the left (and some elitist righties) appear to fear Mrs. Palin so much. This is Ms. Gardner’s second letter about Mrs. Palin and both accused Mrs. Palin of being “an attention-getter.”
“However, she has stated she would take sex education out of schools and promote abstinence, even though she obviously didn’t teach her daughter the rules.”
[RWC] This letter is also the second time Ms. Gardner brought up Bristol Palin. I don’t know where Ms. Gardner got her information (or maybe I do). I Googled “‘sex education’ Palin” and all my hits about her position were from 2008 and earlier. It appears everyone hanging their hat on “she [Mrs. Palin] has stated she would take sex education out of schools” rely on a 2006 “questionnaire that asked if she’d support funding for abstinence-until-marriage programs instead of ‘explicit sex-education programs, school-based clinics and the distribution of contraceptives in schools?’” Mrs. Palin replied, “Yes, the explicit sex-ed programs will not find my support.”
According to National Review Online, during a 2006 debate Mrs. Palin was asked, “In a recent survey you said that you would support abstinence-until-marriage education but that you would not support explicit sex-ed programs. What are explicit sex-ed programs, and does that include talking about condoms in school?” Mrs. Palin replied, “No, I don’t think that it includes something that is relatively benign. Explicit means explicit. No, I am pro-contraception, and I think kids who may not hear about it at home should hear about it in other avenues. So I’m not anti-contraception. But yeah, abstinence is another alternative that should be discussed with kids. I don’t have a problem with that. That doesn’t scare me, so it’s something that I would support also.”
As for Mrs. Palin “obviously didn’t teach her daughter the rules,” while I doubt that’s true, Bristol Palin attended public Alaska high schools and they teach traditional sex-ed classes.
Staying on the “she obviously didn’t teach her daughter the rules” comment, as a former teenager I confess I didn’t always do what my parents taught me. Are we to believe Ms. Gardner never did anything contrary to what her parents taught? What about Ms. Gardner’s children?
“Palin’s theory is so unrealistic in this generation today. Safe sex would be a better subject to teach at home first and later in health class in school.”
[RWC] If Ms. Gardner had done even a scintilla of fact-checking, she would have learned her apparent position that “[s]afe sex would be a better subject to teach at home first and later in health class in school” appears to be the same as Mrs. Palin.
© 2004-2011 Robert W. Cox, all rights reserved.