Current mood:	annoyed
Entry tags:	america, complaints, politics, words/language

The word is Consequence, Senator.
Barack Obama said recently, "Look, I got two daughters — 9 years old and 6 years old. I am going to teach them first about values and morals, but if they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby. I don’t want them punished with an STD at age 16, so it doesn’t make sense to not give them information."

Others have covered the angle that he is essentially putting pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases in the same category. I won't go into that.

My problem is with the word he chose: punishment.

A punishment is pain, discomfort or loss cause to someone for a fault. In other words, it is something an external party inflicts on someone. None of the things he mentioned are inflicted by a third party. A punishment would be that he throws his daughter out of the house. A punishment would be if the government were to put her in jail or fine her for her "mistake". No, what he mentioned were not punishments. They are possible consequences.

A consequence is an event that follows directly from the action. A consequence does not depend on an exterior party inflicting something. It stems from and grows out of the action itself. Touching a piece of hot metal leads to a consequence of burning yourself. It is not a punishment. It is a consequence. No one needs to find out that you did something for a consequence of that action to occur. Someone must find out you did something in order for you to be punished for it.

Pregnancy and disease are both possible consequences of having sexual intercourse. Neither is a punishment.

I would venture to guess that Barack Obama said these things are punishments because his political philosophy does not include the idea of consequences. After all, Liberalism is all about removing consequences, because consequences of our disparate actions invariably lead to inequality of status.

By the way, what he's talking about his daughters having, if they are to prevent pregnancy and STDs is not information but contraception. Information will not, if you choose to have sex, prevent pregnancy or disease transmission. Information can only prevent these things if it leads one to choose not to have sex. If one is going to have sex, information will not prevent anything. And if Obama thinks that information will not lead to abstaining in the event of an opportunity to "make a mistake", it seems silly to imagine that information will lead to the presence of mind for his daughter and the hypothetical boy with whom she has a mistake to stop and get contraceptive devices. I know that some will think, perhaps they will have the device with them. If that is the case, it is not a mistake but a willful choice. Judging from his remarks, I guess that in Obama's mind, people don't willfully make bad choices, only mistakes.

Words are important. Choose them carefully. The words of a president are even more important, because leaders around the world make decisions based on what the leader of the U.S.A. says. Choose them carefully, too.