@CJ1999 I plan on this being the last installment on this as I feel it has reached it's end.
To make the inference that people who know they are protected from a virus will now go have promiscuous sex is the same logic that the religious right uses when it comes to sex education. And I’m pretty sure it’s been proven that having access to information, birth control, abortion, and vaccines doesn’t make people disregard all caution and engage in risky sexual practices. NOT having the knowledge or protections is what leads to many more STD infections and unwanted pregnancies.
So many things in there. First, as I said, I am not at all religious, right or left. I believe I am moral, but I don't subscribe to any popular theology. That being said, just because a religion has a stance on an issue does not inherently make it wrong. For example, most religions have tenets regarding us not murdering each other. Do you think that is a bad thing just because a religion you may not subscribe to advocates it? I would not like to even consider what the word would be like if religion had a monopoly on morality.
And please read your own words when you say "I’m pretty sure it’s been proven". Shaky grounds to start with. I am assuming you have access to the web. Surely you can do better than that. One thing I know for sure, and just because some religious group agrees with me, it makes it no less true, not having sex is 100% safe, and outside of that there are ways you can mitigate your potential exposure. I think this is a good protocol regardless of what you have been inoculated against.
As for a woman facing a cancer diagnosis, what exactly is she supposed to lament? Having sex? She was likely exposed 20/30 years ago. Maybe she only had one partner, but he had slept with one woman before her? So she should regret the ‘real cause’ - having gotten married and not wearing a hazmat suit (given that intercourse is NOT required to transmit HPV) for 30 yrs of sex with her husband?
Of course she will lament not having acccess to a vaccine at the time that might have protected her. Just like every woman with HPV cervical cancer. And just like every parent of a child in the 30s with polio or who died from measles laments not having access to the vaccine that has since eradicated those diseases. The REAL regrets will come from women 20 or 30 yrs from now who did not get the vaccine and get this cancer, because they had the information and had a choice.
What she laments is up to her. Lamenting something that did not exist and may not have been effective against the strain that she has seems short sighted to me. I also wonder if there is any lamenting of anybody else she may have slept with after the person she got the HPV from and where it may have went from there. When you are shooting a firearm you are responsible from the time you pull the trigger until the bullet stops. There is a nice definite end. With a disease like this it is has the potential to be more of a geometric sequence. One infecting the next, infecting two, infecting four. Many many people being both victim and victimizer.
As far as kids today, they have a lot of choices and a lot of nasty consequences to contend with. I am honestly glad I am not one of them. It is sad, but I grew up in a world that no longer exists. I hope today's kids make informed decisions that they are happy with long term. I really wish them the best as they are swimming in very roiled waters.
And while you say you had no mean intent, obviously the replies and ‘likes’ those replies have gotten, shows that to many people, it sure SOUNDED that way.
I don't see it as being mean. Sorry, but I really don't. It certainly was not with malice of intent. Believe it or not, I consider Bridgett a friend, I take no pleasure in her pain, and I wish her a full an speedy recovery.. As far as what other people like, or think, I hope you don't live your life worrying about that too much. As much as we are tangling here I would be lying if I did not admit that there was some intellect on the other side. The vast majority of the naysayers are either emotional or vacuous. Emotion is not a bad thing, but it needs to be kept in check. Emotional responses are generally not well reasoned out. And the vacuous, as and old friend used to say, they suffer diarrhea of the mouth and constipation of the brain.