When O'Reilly Goes Off The Rails...

It is pretty sad. I watched him interview an acquaintance, Dave Kopel, this evening about a controversy involving Boulder, Colorado High School. Apparently a couple of the local radio talk show hosts have taken some remarks from speakers at an event at the school out of context as implying that kids should be sexually promiscuous and experimenting with illegal drugs. You can read the transcripts here.

I confess that I share O'Reilly's revulsion at the way that these speakers approached the topics. However, it appears to me that the objective was to appear sufficiently hip to be taken seriously--and in a very, very liberal place like Boulder, I would expect that approaching these topics in a manner that would not offend Bill O'Reilly would be mean that the important part of the messages these speakers were giving, would be lost.

What were the messages? One of the speakers who O'Reilly castigated for mentioning that some therapists have used the drug Ecstasy as part of therapy, also pointed out:

And there's no question that people's worlds are changed after their consciousness is changed. Well, you have to really sort of think, am I ready to have my world changed? I’m 14 years old. Maybe I'm not ready to see what one sees on LSD. Maybe I'm not ready to have the feelings that mescaline provides in my body, or ecstasy, because a lot of those feelings have to do with feelings of being out of control, and they can be very scary to a person who doesn't have a strong enough sense of themselves, and that’s why people end up having bad trips at young ages. They're just not ready.

...

I'm a member of that generation, so you know, LSD was my drug of choice in college, and I lost a lot of friends. I had one friend who jumped out of a third story window. He thought he could fly. That's just one example. So, with non-responsible use, I think what Sanho says, some of you just won't be there.

There's a playwright that O'Reilly is angry about for saying that condoms aren't good. But you read the transcript, and you can see that he's making a couple of points about how 15 year olds think about condoms (if they think of them at all)--while making a couple of points that, if Dr. James Dobson made them in front of a public school audience, would have the ACLU filing suit to stop:

And you at 15, little Antonio, should have waited to have sex. Because I know now, and I know you weren't ready for what you felt. And when you got older and you were ready, it was transcending, and beautiful, and amazing, and like God, but you didn't wait, and you should have at least known that when Carla, super hot junior, invited you over to her house for the first time for you to have sex, when you were a sophomore, and she tells you, "It's okay, you’ll like it," she's telling you the truth. But when she tells you don’t worry, her mom never comes home this early, she's lying. (laughter from audience) Because by the time she tells you that, when you’re naked on her bed with her, her mom is already in the house, coming up the stairs. And when you hide, don't hide in her mom's shower, because for some reason, that's the first place she looks. (laughter from audience)

...

And she says, "Don’t worry, my mom won’t be back," that’s true. And you say something about a condom and she says, "Don’t worry, I'm clean, and I can’t get pregnant," and I swear to God she said, "because the moon is full." (laughter from audience) And when she says that, don't believe her. Because a few weeks later she says she's late getting her period, and those four days waiting until she finally gets her period are the longest of your short life. (laughter from audience) And from that day on, you swear you will always use condoms.

...

So its no surprise that me at 15 stopped using condoms when she said she was going on the pill, and the next thing you know, something is leaking out of your penis, and it hurts when you pee. So then you find yourself in a clinic across town, hands around your ankles. Dr. Walters pulls out a huge q-tip meant for a horse or something, (laughter from audience) and sticks it right there and says, “This might hurt for a moment.” (laughter from audience) And he puts it in where things should only come out, and you say "Doc, that kind of hurts," and he says, "Yeah? Well, you should have thought about that if you weren’t using condoms." (laughter and applause from audience)

And even that experience won't teach you about condoms. And when you finally fall in love, when you're a senior and old enough to know, with that beautiful, amazing, angelic girl that makes you laugh, and you trust her with your heart, with all of these stories, and more, and making love with her is literally that, an act of creation, that creates more love in the world, and fills you full of light and hope and joy, and you hold her and she holds you and it is as close to heaven as you can get. And you would move mountains for her if you could. And she goes on the pill and she is clean, and you believe her. And you should, because she really loves you, little Antonio, 16 years old. And she forgets to take her pill one day because she's 17, and amazing, but she's not perfect. I know women in their 30s who forget to take their pill. And a little while later, you both make a decision that you'll regret for the rest of your lives—every year, marking how old it would have been. And how it would have been to have been a 17 year-old father. And you're glad that you’ve had that choice, and it makes sense, but why do you have a hole in your heart, all these years later? And you can't go back in time and tell myself that.

Was it crudely put in places? Sure. But I'm not sure what else approach would work with a Boulder High School audience. I accepted a job in Boulder a few years back, and my wife and I flew out to look at housing. The more time we spent talking to the locals, the more apparent it became that it was Sonoma County with a view of the Rockies--a place with far more money than parents, and not a good place to raise kids.

UPDATE: A reader points out that Dr. Becker also made this statement:

Joel Becker: I would also vote for the legalization of most drugs. I think that we’re missing a real opportunity here to regulate something in a way that will work a lot better. I happen to live in the state of California in the city of Los Angeles, which has been described as America’s Amsterdam. We have legalized medical marijuana in the state of California. There are 110 marijuana clubs in the city of Los Angeles. There was an article on the cover of the Los Angeles Magazine that said “When Did LA Become, Like, the Capitol of Marijuana, Like, in the US?” And it is. If you want to get marijuana in the city of Los Angeles, all you’ve got to do is go to a doctor who will write you a ‘script. You go to a club. You go and you buy somewhat regulated production marijuana so you know you’re not getting stuff with chemicals in it. They not only sell marijuana, they sell hash, they sell baked goods. We have brownies, we have cookies, all the things you might want, so come on over. (laughter from audience)

I'm afraid that while Becker did acknowledge the hazards of drug abuse, this is certainly a statement of active support for marijuana use.