This is a laudable goal and I confess I did not attend, and know what happened by reading the two newspapers in our county. But I see disturbing signs of a lot of dust of activity and skirting around the real solution.

Ravi Zacharais writing about the Columbine High School shooting, but it can be applied to the teen pregnancy problem… "This generation more than any other has had access to pleasure of every kind--sight, sound, touch, taste, power and sex. The smorgasbord of sensation to which young lives have access has seduced them into flirting with dreams while discounting reality."

In light of what this generation has experienced, the question is not "Why do we have the epidemic of teen pregnancy?', but "Why wouldn't we have the problem?'

One young boy, a father before his time said… "For me it was sex or drugs, I chose sex." One would hope that someone would have had the courage to stand up and say, "No the choice was to have sex or not have sex, to do drugs or not to do drugs. I am sure that did not happen, courage is a vanishing commodity in parents and leaders. Self esteem rules. As parents and adults we know what is right, many of us lived by those right and wrong rules, but now we think the world has changed. Right and wrong do not change, the culture has changed. We have allowed the culture to dominate and quiet our voices.

There was a comment that "It all begins in the home, but home is not what it used to be." No suggestion was made to get to the parents, educate and lay the responsibility first and foremost on them. Study after study says that when a value is expressed in the home, forcefully and consistently, the child listens. But too often the parent is intimated by the culture to speak out.

In many ways we have fought this war and do so like an army in retreat. We can't defend this beachhead so lets retreat and regroup. We continue to lower standards in an attempt to achieve "success".

The group chose a couple of "culture winners", teen parents to discuss the problem. This may be ok to get some insight but not solutions. They do not speak the truth or from wisdom on the subject. They speak to defend or at least soften their actions. I would have liked to see a parade of some of our youth winners who have traversed a vicious culture and held true to what is right. They are out there. Let's see what worked in their lives. These would be far better to learn from than those who succumbed to base drives.

So what does this group propose. They have not formulated their final strategies, but some of the suggestions indicate the direction.

Let's find and pool funding, always high on the list of things to do. Let's start a website and a hotline… "Just a little more information will help!" More mentoring, more church involvement…. Support group for professionals!

These are all meaningless until the message is formulated and just allows us to avoid the solution…. It is easier to ask "Why" than to face the problem.

I would like to see a basic message that this group is going to present to parent and child. It might go something like this.

To the parent. It is your job. It is your responsibility to drive home to your child what is right, what is wrong. What is good for him or her and what is bad. What is moral and what is not. It is not enough to hope he will absorb your values, you must say and say and say again. You cannot control the culture, but you can to some degree control your child's exposure to that culture. Take control.

To the child. It is wrong and immoral for you to go to bed before you can take the full responsibility. To take this responsibility you have to be committed…. Read "Married!" It is bad for your relationship with the woman, it is bad for you, it is bad for the child and it is bad for your family and community. You do have a choice. Do it or not. Sure it is hard sometimes, but we all do and you will all your life face hard decisions. This is one of the most important you will face. It will impact your life for ever for good or bad.

Will this work? Not in all cases. But it is the real answer, not a "feel good" approach. It will get through to a lot of parents and children, it will make a difference.

Has the "safe sex", "don't do it until you are ready", always have a condom handy… approach worked? Let's try an offensive, not a retreating, rear guard action.