Roland Martin is More Eloquent Than I Am About Palin

Martin in his commentary on cnn.com says a lot of what I said yesterday, except more thoroughly researched and stuff. More importantly he articulated some stuff I felt but didn't get around to typing out. He also put down some facts I didn't go out of my way to get like his citing the 46.8% teen sex rate from some group. The most politically damning statistic being that Alaska has one of the highest rates of teen STD transmission and taking her to task for it.

His last 4 paragraphs or so articulates how I feel about the larger issue brought up by Bristol's pregnancy. Nobody I know of would think it's a good thing to throw condoms at your teen and look the other way. Nobody I know with kids is browbeating them to never have sex until they're married else, leaving their teens ignorant about what sex is and why it's important to wait.

I would add that as long as there are people that deal with their beliefs about an issue in an entirely dogmatic way from either side of an issue we're going to have backward-ass policies in this country. We've got to get the best ideas from each side and synthesize our approaches to policies aimed to address our social problems. Maybe it will take someone politically important dying to get health care reform. If this is what it takes for "the people" to react to a current event in such a way that politicians have to deal with it, then fine. But now I'm meandering off topic, so I'll stop sounding like a bitter elderly person.