Silence emboldens

Never overlook your responsibilities

CAGED BIRD, by Maya Angelou (1983)
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A free bird leaps
on the back of the wind
and floats downstream
till the current ends
and dips his wing
in the orange sun rays
and dares to claim the sky.

But a bird that stalks
down his narrow cage
can seldom see through
his bars of rage
his wings are clipped and
his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom.

The free bird thinks of another breeze
and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees
and the fat worms waiting on a dawn bright lawn
and he names the sky his own.

But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams
his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom

A panel of the Florida High School Athletics Association (FHSAA) submitted a recommendation to the FHSAA Board of Directors, which meets Feb 26-27, 2023, to make its decision.

The panel recommended they adopt a national registration form that makes answering questions on menstruation mandatory for student athletes. It differs from that national form by requiring all answers (medical and reproductive history) to be submitted to school officials — not just the page with doctors' signature clearance.

Florida’s student athletes have long been required to answer many health-related questions on a form before their doctors clear them for practice and play. Those questions are related to physical fitness and were designed to prevent injuries. 

Female student athletes have been asked to answer additional questions about their menstrual periods for the past 20 years. But that was optional. The fresh recommendation is to make it mandatory if the full board approves.

A Palm Beach newspaper heard from appalled pediatricians, alarmed not just because of the potential mandate, but because that info would be online, available for broader scrutiny by law enforcement officials. Should student athletes become pregnant or miss a menstrual period, they could be spied on to determine if they seek or successfully obtain an abortion. Spying on US citizens with no evidence they have previously committed a crime or intend to, is a massive invasion of their privacy.

The doctors say only the third page of the FHSAA form needs to be shared with school districts — the page that carries the doctor's signature that clears the athlete for sports participation since it includes any precautions or limitations their physicians have defined. They think the rest of the form is confidential between a physician and their patient, and should remain so.

Some states have previously required students to provide all the information while others have explicitly stated that student athletes should not do so.

Though my daughters are well past their high school years, had a law mandating this privacy invasion existed back then, I would have strongly encouraged them to avoid all high school competitive sports. Not just because it could be subpoenaed by snoopy law enforcement but as well, I don’t think it’s right for school officials to know if my kids are having sex, have a yeast infection or endometriosis or a venereal disease. The health of their vaginas, ovaries and uteruses isn’t relevant to their athletic performance and no school official should be privy to this information. Only the students’ physicians, after discussions with the student and student’s parent(s) should provide additional information if it’s info deemed necessary to protect the student’s health.

In addition to the importance I see in Florida parents standing up to oppose the new recommendation, I’d encourage the passage of new state laws requiring that prior to running for office and prior to appointment to any public service positions, a citizen must undergo two medical screening exams. The first would be a CAT scan of the brain to determine if and how many penises it contains. The second would require more than 40 swabs over the entire exterior of the patient’s head to determine if it’s recently been injected into the patient’s own rectum and precisely how far.

The only exceptions to the required screenings would occur if the candidates for public service positions submit a note from their PCPs indicating that prior tests detected the absence of any brain activity at all.

The Anti-Defamation League that tracks different hate groups published a new report in USAToday last Tuesday that indicated at least $6.2 million has been raised by extremists on crowdfunding websites from 2016 through 2022, with $5.4 million of that raised by a site claiming to be Christian.

An excerpt screenshot:

When we hear about several hundred US police officers abusing and killing people they encounter each year, I think it incumbent on the more than 1 million police officers employed to publicly condemn the abusers and killers. Otherwise the public can have no faith in those professionals at all.

Similarly, I think that the 167 million American adults in this country who claim to be Christian need to publicly condemn groups and websites calling themselves Christian if they support or fund violent hate groups. If they don’t, they’ll continue to see people leaving their churches and others refusing to join them. Since 2009, more than 13 million Americans have departed their Christian faiths and a majority of millennials are not joining them.

Will they ultimately destroy their entire religion with silence instead?

Videos today echo the question: Which side are you on?

Note: Newsletters may be scarce for a few days due to a friend’s medical needs.