At 03:34 PM 4/14/02, Reggie Bautista wrote: >Julia wrote: >>I'd be a lot happier today if there were no crack-addicted babies born, >>for one thing.
Of course, someone could interpret that statement in more than one way. Just for the sake of discussion, it could mean that you want to prevent women (or in far too many cases, "girls") of childbearing age from taking drugs, or it could mean that you think abortion should be mandatory whenever a woman using drugs gets pregnant . . . >I think I've mentioned before that my wife is a music teacher. One of the >problems teachers are facing more and more these days is trying to teach >kids whose mothers were on crack, alcohol, and/or other drugs during >pregnancy. All of these kids get off to a slower start than children born >to drug and alcohol free mothers, although some of them can get caught up >depending on the level of drug use of the mother and the level of care and >intervention available for the child -- and money makes a big difference >in the amount of care such a child can get. > >There is some evidence to suggest that the environment in which the child >grows up is more important that the amount of drugs done by the mother, see >http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/cocaine/crackbb.htm >for an extreme and somewhat overstated version of that argument. But it's >hard to determine whether the drugs the mother is taking cause the bad >environment or the bad environment is the cause of the drug use; it's >probably a combination of those things, a viscious circle where each >causes the other to get worse. Are there enough cases in which a baby born to a crack-addicted mother is removed from that "bad�" environment and adopted into a "better�" environment to make for a statistically valid study to determine which factor is more important? Or where the mother gets her act together when she learns she is pregnant and provides a better environment�? �I suppose we need to first agree on definitions for the adjectives in quotation marks. �Forgive me if this sounds like stereotyping�although stereotypes frequently exist for a reason�but ISTM in many cases the difference between a "bad" environment and a "better" environment for the children, as well as in many cases the difference between poverty and having enough, is marriage�, preferably before conception. �Need I add such adjectives as "traditional", "stable", "where children are wanted", etc.? (Though I suppose now I need to define what I mean by those, too . . . ) >The root cause of both is poverty, and we as a planet need to do much more >to fight the problem of poverty than we do right now. LBJ's "war on poverty" didn't seem to do much more to fix that problem than the current "war on drugs" has done to get people to stop using drugs. Any suggestions? >I realize this sounds pretty strange coming from someone who leans toward >Libertarianism... > >Reggie Bautista -- who is really all over the political spectrum, >depending on the issue -- Ronn! :) who, like Reggie, is all over the political spectrum, depending on the issue God bless America, Land that I love! Stand beside her, and guide her Thru the night with a light from above. From the mountains, to the prairies, To the oceans, white with foam� God bless America! My home, sweet home. -- Irving Berlin (1888-1989)
