Losing Sight of the Point

 A few things have come across my scope of events and happenings in the world in the past few days that just beg for me to indulge and write an opinion on. Here is one of them.
  I came in late on the whole Rush Limbaugh fiasco that happened last Wednesday (Feb. 29, 2012). With all the uproar about what he said I just had to do some research and get the facts. Now I'm not a Rush advocate, though I do agree with him on an occasional issue as well as disagree from time to time and to be honest I just don't care enough about him to listen to what he has to say and follow him like so many do and I feel he is a loudmouth arrogant bully.

  As I understand it, during his broadcast that day he was commenting on the testimony of a Georgetown law student, Sandra Fluke, at a Capitol Hill hearing. Fluke, who is an advocate for government funding of contraception had submitted a written testimony to the committee (House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform) in which she "argued in favor of requiring all private insurance plans to cover contraception coverage, even religious institutions." She further argued that in the course of three years of law school, student birth control could cost $3000 in some instances.
  Fluke's statements in her testimony drove Limbaugh to make the following statement on his show:

"What does it say about the college co-ed Fluke, who goes before a congressional committee and essentially says she must be paid to have sex? What does that make her? It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute. She wants to be paid to have sex. She's having so much sex, she can't afford the contraception. She wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay her to have sex." Rush Limbaugh as quoted by CNN.com

   The sad part of Rush's statement is that his point was lost amid the derogatory slurs at Ms. Fluke. His argument would have been profoundly more persuasive if he had left out the colorful name-calling and stuck to the facts. Fluke's position is she wants the government to require insurance companies to cover the cost of contraceptives. This position dictates that sex is a necessary, even required, activity which must be undertaken in order to graduate. Now I'm all for sex, in fact I think the world would be a much better place if everyone could have all the sex they wanted but it is not the governments role to intervene in the sexual life of the citizenry. Participation in sex is not necessary in order to enroll, attend or graduate from any school or university and for Ms. Fluke to assert that the government should impose upon insurance companies to provide coverage to allow students to have safe sex is ludicrous. If students are going to have sex then yes, they need to practice safe sex - and they should pay for it out of their own pocket rather than cause insurance rates for everyone else to go up in order to pay for it. At some point we each must be responsible for the things we do or don't do and we should be mature enough to take responsibility for our mistakes, be it the result of sex or some other decision we make which results in a mistake or problem of some kind.
  Rush was right in his position on the matter but the words he chose to use to relay his position were in extreme poor taste. I don't believe Rush should be taken off the air but I do applaud those advertisers who have chosen to remove their advertising dollars from his show and in effect force him to take responsibility for his immature remarks.