Hopping From Topic to Topic - Correction
Briefly, the White House commissioned a study on the effectiveness of Federal Gov't ads in fighting drug abuse; especially pot. The result of the study? About what we'd expect.
The White House also did what we've come to expect. It sat on the study for1/121-1/2 years and claimed the results were flawed because they were stale dated.
You can read all about it in Slate.
The White House also did what we've come to expect. It sat on the study for
You can read all about it in Slate.
Personal aside. I'm not sure too many kids are frightened into using good judgment. My folks were non-smoking, non-drinking, non-swearing, church going folk. And then there's me. Their favorite evil was smoking (years ahead of their time). It probably wouldn't have occurred to me to start smoking (or at least not until much later) if I hadn't wanted to find out what all the fuss was about.
This expensive study took I don't know how many pages and millions of dollars to say what I just said.
Labels: granny
posted by Granny @ 9/07/2006 06:39:00 PM
1 Comments:
At Friday, September 08, 2006 5:38:00 PM ,
Seven Stones to Rapa said...
Anyone with a modicum of knowledge of kid psychology knows that kids are fearless; they think they are invulnerable and no bad things will happen to them.
When I was doing volunteer work with hippies and hippie wannabe druggies there were not as many designer drugs on the market but all the standard nasties were out there. Kids saw their buddies O.D. and die, yet they always thought they could handle it, it wouldn't happen to them. Scare tactics did not work with the majority of them.
I, too, was reared in a deeply religious, Bible thumping, hell fire Baptist family, except my father who offered little comment. Smoking, drinking, dancing, swearing and movie going were all destined to send you straight into the fires of hell. Quite naturally that generated considerable curiosity.
I saw the evil moving picture shows (as they were called then) by spending the night with girl friends whose parents took us to the movies. The country mouse discovered a whole new world of glamorous, sophisticated people. The men wore tuxedos, smoked and were oh so worldly. The women wore slinky gowns and smoked,usually
using long cigarette holders. All drank from stemmed glassware and they danced ever so gracefully, swooping and twirling to music such as I had never heard at the church. I was enchanted.
My first efforts at sophisticated smoking was via roll-you-owns from my father's pouch of Bull Durham tobacco. It is difficult to appear sophisticated when fine cut tobacco dribbles down your dress and gets in your mouth, requiring inelegant spitting. Later, baby sitting provided funds for store bought cigarettes that allowed a little better imitation of the movie stars. The period of choking, coughing, strangling and spitting didn't last too long but the sore throats did. I also discovered that smoking grape vines was a big mistake.
Dating and baby sitting opened the door to experimenting with alcohol. Lone Star beer in stemmed glasses looked great but tasted awful. I found that I did not like feeling tipsy and always was much against anything that messed with my brain and mind. So I rarely imbibed alcohol and when I did it was very sparingly.But my abstinence was not due to any dire warning.
I had always liked trying to dance, felt like there was music in my toes and would try to imitate the movie dancers when Mother wasn't around. When I was finally able to really dance to real music, I was hooked. I LOVED dancing and often danced the soles out of my stockings. I seldom missed a turn on the dance floor, and I danced until my arthritic hip joints and spine rebelled too painfully. Old and crippled up as I am now, I still take a few steps around the room when the music moves me.
The health dangers of cigarettes was not known then; the prohibitions were on moral grounds as was the indulging in "demon rum" and dancing (it might generate lust!!). Movies were prohibited because of bad examples and negative moral influence. Some of the religious lessons stuck (but not all - I sought my own path) but none of the scare tactics nor warnings made a dint. Believe me, those country Baptists could come up with scary scenarios that were terrifying.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home