Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/119315
THIS WEEK WITH MARGARET Baby Faces Speaking the Truth by MARGARET DICKSON You gotta give it to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. He made bazillions of dollars in business and used a few of those zillions to get himself elected to CEO of America���s most famous city. I am sure he has done some ���ne things for New Yorkers, and several of his initiatives for them are spilling over to the rest of us. Some of his constituents, along with wags from throughout the rest of the country, are saying that what Bloomberg really wants to be is our national nanny ��� that he wants to take care of us. All I can say is ���Go, Mr. Mayor!��� First, Bloomberg ended smoking in restaurants and other public places, a ban which now includes outdoor public places, including parks. His recent effort to do away with jumbo servings of colas and other sugary beverages, the so-called ���big gulps,��� was derailed, at least temporarily, by the New York courts, but my guess is we have not seen the last of this one. Now, Bloomberg is tackling teenage pregnancy in graphic terms. We have all seen anti-smoking ads with the faces of elderly smokers who look like dried prunes staring back at us. There are also posters depicting the blackened lungs of long-time smokers. These are not pleasant images to look at, but they certainly get the point across about what smoking does to the human body. Bloomberg���s latest campaign to save us from ourselves features close-ups of babies wailing, with banners warning that these children are more likely to be abused and less likely to graduate from high school than those of older parents, that babies cost thousands a year, that teenagers who have babies are likely to raise them alone and with inadequate educations. Common sense and experience tells us these banners speak the truth, which is surely why teenage pregnancy rates are continuing to fall in North Carolina. In 2011 only 44 out of 1,000 girls aged 15 to 19 became pregnant, an all time low. Cumberland County���s rate is higher, 62 out of 1000 but still lower than it has been. This is good news. Right? You would not know it from some quarters. Bloomberg is being raked over the coals for ���stigmatizing��� and ���shaming��� those who do become young mothers. I have a bit of experience in this mine���eld myself. When I ���rst began writing for Up & Coming Weekly, I wrote several columns about a young friend whom I called ���Susan.��� I visited Susan in Cape Fear Valley Medical Center one New Year���s Eve after she gave birth to her ���rst child. She celebrated her 18th birthday the following Valentine���s Day. Here is part of what I said about Susan and her situation at that time. ���A promising young woman is going to have to postpone her dreams while she cares for and provides for a baby. There is a substantial chance she will not achieve them at all. A young man who is apparently still searching for his dreams is now morally and legally obligated to a child for at least 18 years.��� Up & Coming readers let this ���edgling columnist have it, with one telling me that I was treating Susan as if she had died. Things have worked out for Susan, though. She married her baby���s father several years later and they now have a second healthy child. Both are employed and Susan is studying to become a registered nurse. But as President Barak Obama famously observed during the recent Presidential campaign, they did not do it alone. Both Susan and her husband are blessed with supportive families who help with childcare and, I suspect, with ���nances. Susan has been academically inclined since she was a young child, and she made continuing her education a priority, using student aid to continue moving forward. Susan and her little family are exceptions to the norm of teenage pregnancy. For every Susan, there are other young women whose educations have been stopped cold, leaving them unprepared to provide for their children. For every Susan, there are young women who live hand-to-mouth, often on government assistance which changes with political winds. For every young man like Susan���s conscientious husband, there are young men who have ���ed their paternal responsibilities faster than the baby can cry out ���Daddy!��� ���Nanny��� Bloomberg is right. Smoking is not good for the people doing it or for those around them. Obesity compromises health and raises the cost of healthcare for the individual with weight issues and to others with whom the expense of collective healthcare is shared. And, teenage pregnancy alters life forever for mothers, sometimes for fathers and narrows life���s opportunities for the little ones who have arrived before their parents were really ready. This is not stigmatizing or shaming. It is simply the truth. Mayor Bloomberg is correct ��� and MARGARET DICKSON, Conbrave ��� to keep trying to make people���s tributing Writer, COMMENTS? lives better. Editor@upandcomingweekly.com. Daily Specials Breakfast Lunch Dinner Fresh Seafood Hand Cut Steaks Homemade Desserts Italian & Greek Children's Menu Banquet rooms available up to 100 guests APRIL 7-13, 2010 ys y' n ing Weekl Up & Com VOLUME 15 ISSUE 14 Now e! n Onli WLIXOFRP OHEHDX \HWWHYLO ZZZID Cumberland County Library ary Presents The Big Read d 201 2010 m com y.com comingweekl www.upand Fa ayet Fa teville Bea You re You���re A G Good an C Charlie B Brown at FSU PROUDLY SPON SORED BY HEY! THIS PAPER ide id Poc et Gu FUN FAMILY EDUC ATIONAL RESOURCE *HSSF REE l Focus o D d UP Up VOL. 10 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM OF CUMBERLAND & HOKE CO BELONGS TO: AY 2010 HAPPY MOTHER ���S DAY! CAMP GUIDE INS IDE! 3 484-0261 1304 Morganton Rd. Mon-Sat: 6am-10pm Sun: 7am-2:30 pm Serving Fayetteville Over 50 Years! 9LHZVUZ [V THYRL[ HUK HK]LY[PZL `V\Y I\ZPULZZ ^P[O \Z Pocket Guide 5V^ VUSPUL! ^^^\WHUKJVTPUN^LLRS`JVT APRIL 3-9, 2013 UCW 5