REGULATING BEHAVIOR

Liberty gives us the opportunity to regulate our behavior. It is not the
freedom to do anything we wish in order to gratify our passions. If we have
liberty, we must have self-control.

The price this nation pays for uncontrolled passions is the oversupply of
criminals behind bars and the number of people with venereal diseases.

This is no small price. More than a million inmates are there for drugs,
hatred resulting in harm or death to others, disrespect that led to fights
and killings, intoxicating beverages that led to fights and automobile
deaths and other offenses.

The surgeon general has reported that 12 million people per year contract
sexually transmitted diseases, 40,000 get infected with HIV, and 100,000
are sexually abused.

We must show compassion by teaching people not to do these things -- before
the fact. Showing compassion after the fact is hypocritical and superficial.

If I see a child step on railroad tracks, and a train is approaching, I do
not wait until a train runs over the child and then cry and moan about how
sorry I am that this accident occurred. I tell the child to get off the
tracks now.

We must take the same approach with people who cannot see that they are
doing wrong when we see clearly.

Switching sexual partners regularly increases the likelihood that one will
have a sexually transmitted disease. Participating in gay sexual activities
increases that likelihood about 10 times. These behaviors are
life-threatening and are to be looked down on by society as detrimental.
Remember the child on the tracks, and tell these people now. Do not wait to
show compassion after the fact.

James Roy Bond | Spartanburg