Americans perpetuate apathy when we do not vote or when we are content to sit back and “let Joe do it.” Worse yet, we practice it when we do not get involved in our children’s lives. It is a lot easier in the short term if we just let the government, schools, or social organizations teach their value system.

There is currently underway in our country a lobbying effort by Merck & Co. to have state legislatures pass laws requiring their drug, Gardasil, to be injected into our female youth beginning at about ages 11-12.

The proposed law would require your child to have this set of three injections in order to be able to attend a public school. Some insurance companies have even been convinced to cover all or a portion of the $360 cost for the three shots.

While Gardasil claims to block infection of four strains of human papilloma virus, which could lead to cervical cancer many years later in life, the method of “forcing” this drug on the populace by legislation is unacceptable in a free society.

It is this method of enforcement that is the issue here, not a debate over whether the vaccine may be good or bad.

In the first state to make this law, the governor of Texas has already signed an order requiring girls entering the sixth grade in the 2008 school year to have this vaccination.

This is just another invasion of family decision-making by government. A law of this type could be used as a precedent in our legal system to impose many other laws on our society, the magnitude of which only the greed of man can conceive.

If we continue to practice apathy it will not be long before our daughters will be subjected to this law in our state. If you do not want yet another decision about training up your children taken away, you best be calling your state representative and senator.

For those that have access to the Internet, [go to] the Centers for Disease Control [to learn] more about HPV.

Ron Black
blac622 (at) bellsouth.net