Barb & Albert's Wedding

Isn't she beautiful?

Tara and I warming ourselves by the fire!

Tara, Andrea and Barb - We rocked the dance floor!!

Damara and I taking an abundance of ridiculous pictures!

Barb and Al had a beautiful wedding day (not so great weather) and I am so excited for them as they start their journey. I had a blast with the girls from work and enjoyed the AMAZING buffet... yeah for weddings!!!

ahhh rocking the boat...

Well as it turns out I should be talking about HPV Vaccinations instead of homosexual curriculum so, I will address that. There is a new vaccination available to grade 6 girls that is said to protect against strains of cancer caused by an STD called HPV. Now if you haven't read the comments on my last post go read them now cause that's what I am going to talk about...
Now I must say, having had long discussions with my mom about these things, I know that her point was not at all that we shouldn't be vaccinating our girls. Her point (and mine) is that we may* be fixing this problem but at the rate we are going, with the age of girls losing their virginity being lower and lower, in 10 years a new strain of something will pop up and we wont have a vaccine for that but we ALSO wont have actually talked with our kids about the effects of sleeping around because, hey we vaccinated them for it! We need to start addressing the what's causing the problem instead of being so concerned about putting a band aid on the consequences. HPV has not been around that long and as soon as we erradicate it something new will pop up but we will have a generation who don't understand how to protect themselves or even see the need.
Its the same as people who say we should be putting MORE money into finding a cure for AIDS than third world development. If we spent more money on education and development we could help stop AIDS at the root of the problem. Im not at all suggesting though that we should quit on a cure for AIDS but more that our focus, or at least some of our attention, stays on the quality of life and the education of people in developing nations.
I hope all of this has made sense, maybe I should stick to my wedding posts but I couldn't let the world think my mom was some kind of conservative, stick-your-head-in-the-sand, none vaccinator (is that a word, I dont know!) Cause she is one of the wisest, knowledgeable women I know and she definitely does not shy from reality.

* I say 'may' because we dont even know the long term effects of these vaccines or if they are even effective after 5 years.

How accepting can we be?

I think today I will rock the boat. As Beimer's subtlety hinted today, I need to take a break from all my blogging about weddings and marriage and I have been mulling this one over in my head for about a week now trying to get up the courage... You see I used to have no problem stirring the pot and being controversial but I've had a plague of timidity for a while now (and a lot of fear that Stephanie's anonymous commenter will come harass me!!). However, Im feeling a little like standing on a soap box today!
In June 2006 the BC government agreed to mandate a homosexual curriculum with no opt-out for students or parents. Now before reading any further you have to remember that this is not my opinion on whether or not we should be having some form of homosexual curriculum in our schools. I merely feel like pointing out that this has been put in place based on the human-rights complaint of a Coquitlam teacher and his partner. Suddenly we see curriculum, with no opt-out (meaning its mandatory for all students), being formed by 2 people. It seems to me that in the fear of homo phobia and prejudice we are running in quite the opposite direction. How is it tolerant of other beliefs that, if they want to educate their children on different types of sexuality at home, they can't. I would say that this is intolerant and prejudice of religious beliefs. All of a sudden, in a world that is dripping with post-modernity and claims there is no absolute truth, we see people being intolerant of certain views. And not only that but these decisions are being made on the basis of a case made by 2 people who are hardly unbiased. How is it discretionary to take a human-rights complaint of two people and create a curriculum around it? Alright, Im off my soap box.