American Spectator Ben Stein October 18, 2006
Obviously, it’s not easy to have a lot of sympathy for Mark Foley. He did some extremely questionable things, and he’s being heartily punished for it, with more to come, most likely.
But he has raised an interesting issue long overdue for national discussion. The media and the pundits are acting as if something brand new happened when a grown up discovered the sexuality of teenagers. They’re acting as if teenagers are innocent little children who never heard of sex until they got e-mails from a Member of Congress.
The truth is just the opposite. This is a nation that is absolutely drenched in juvenile sex. I am not sure exactly when it happened, but it sure was going on when I was a teenager and that was a long time ago in the days of James Dean. The problem is vastly more prevalent now.
Movies in large part are about teenage sex. Whole TV networks — I am not going to mention any names — are largely about teenagers and sex. Music, if you can call it music, is very, very largely about teenagers and sex, and teenagers listen to it incessantly. (I am the father of a teenager, and I promise you, it’s true.)
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