To the editor:

Many thanks to the editor for the cover article about activities at the Hub, and subsequently publishing the excellent letter from Judith Lamontagne covering the topic of STDs and the consequences of “Safe Sex,” so called.

Dr. Roger Case mentioned college-age and teenage as having the highest increase in STDs. Dr. Case’s support in dispensing condoms is what I find disturbing. Condoms are not 100-percent effective. Where is the proof they prevent STD transmission?

Parents, father and mother, must be the first line of defense, and sex education needs to start there, not in a group environment.

Sex is not recreational. Providing condoms to teens at the Hub is promoting promiscuity, not “helping kids make healthy choices” as the director stated in the article.

To have Planned Parenthood teach sex education is an oxymoron. A community organizer presents a biased, and not totally accurate, viewpoint to the young audience, one that encourages active behavior.

“Abstinence only” programs succeed in a culture that is not obsessed with sex such as is prevalent today. To say they fail is untrue when taught by competent teachers. Examine the content of movies, music, TV, literature and computer sites kids visit; they are saturated with sexual material, often depraved or perverted. Many parents haven’t a clue of what their children are exposed to, or the parents are too involved with their own activities to care about what Johnny or Jane are doing.

It angers me that the Hub program excluded adult attendance. One lady, a mom, also a grandmother, was asked to leave on the grounds “It might intimidate the youth there!” What hypocrisy to bar a healthy viewpoint that would benefit those youths in attendance, one they might not hear at home, or in school.

Marriage is the only place for sex. Abstinence worked in my life and made a healthy marriage. Try it! You will have a life without regrets.

Robert Turner

Clinton