WEST VANCOUVER resident Katharine Horsman ... award-winning public speaker at nine years of age. @e¢©6¢ 3.0@ #8 #@@ 6 Open fetter to North Vancouver School District trustees: AIDS education is an ideological bat- tlefield. Advocates of social tradition are trying to use the plague to enforce their moral convictions, while proponents of youth rights are standing up for our need for adequate health care. which includes protection against AIDS. Typically government AiDS informa- tion campaigns address the youth citizenry as misbehaving children and employ either fear or moral exhortation. The few (well-organized) “missionary” fundamentalists advocating changing school curriculum to highlight chastity do little to protect the sharply increas- ing numbers of HIV-positive youth. Spreading fear and misinformation, in- stead of compassion and concern, the lobhy against access to condoms stresses that the AIDS virus is a death sentence. Not true. AIDS Vancouver predicts a medical breakthrough within the next five to 10 years. In the meantime. the Centre for Disease Control, AIDS scien- tists and doctors state that currently the best protection is education and condoms. The 50 cents it costs for a condem is the best means of protecting the fives of those at risk. And those who are at riskemcompass something more than half the student population in Nort: Vancouver high schools. The North Shore Youth Council feels that the context for this health care discussion must remain in the high schools, and be viewed from a youth perspective. The recent North Shore News Zap! survey reported that 84% of local high school students are in favor of the installation of condom machines in washrooms. That is where the users of the education system stand. Our cuitural and social environment, filled with hours of television, cinema, and rock videos which amplify sex and violence as the norm, is typically ignored by those advocating a return to the “traditional family” ‘50s. Advocating chastity to an audience of Madonna ts ludicrous ta say the ieast. The conservative morality campaigns of the 1980s, like that of the local anti- access lobby. fave had virtually no im- pact on the level of Canadian youth sex- ually active. But these chastity crusaders have succeeded in limiting cur access to contraceptives and information. As a result. Canada has one of the highest rates of teenage plegnancy in the nor- thern hemisphere. We also suffer with ahigh level of easily-preventable sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) We do not need an aitered farmiiy studies curriculum, we do not need a blind eye. we need respect for young people's right to determine what i best {or themselves. Condoms are not 3 fimte answer, but tt is the best fist step in slowing the advanang number of North Vancouver students who will soon be HIV infected — North Shore Youth Council eoowvoettinwmeeutea Photo submitted m Double. 19.99 3 Oueen 24.99 Queee 6.69 We are the rainbow... KATHARINE HORSMAN is a Grade 4 student at Collingwood School. She received a silver medal for the following speech at a recent public speaking competition. Honorable judges and fellow Students... Do you like rainbows? What is it about rainbows that you iike? Let me answer that for you! it’s the colors. the beautiful assort- ment of colors! Why is it that we can look at a rainbow and appreciate the way all the colors init blend? Why can’t we look at a group of peo- ple the same way? here are people of white skin. brown skin, black skin, and yellow skin. There are peo- ple of many nationalities. There are people of many religions. But no matter where you go. the people are not really very different from one ancther. Wabassa sheet sets. Twin 12.99 Hurry! Sale ends June iSth or while quantities last. Woodward's Downtown 684-4967, New Westminster 521-1153 Guildford 584-1018 Lansdowne 270-9683. Coquitiam Centre 464-7533 Metrotown 433-6327, Willowbrook Mail 533-4200 1s1 & Renfrew 253-3437. Haney Place Mail 467-0899. Park & Tilfard Centre 983-2626 Assorted jumbo comforters Tain. Reg 25 97 24.99 Double heg 34 97 29.93 Queen Re Dac! piiiuw washable & dryatie wim soft. feng lasting DuPont ceriiec £bres Queen Reg 9479.99 They may have different rehgions of speak afferent languages. but they all care about the samne things we do. Children should live ia a country where they are not judged by thew natronality but instzad by thei character and wha- they are Ait chtidren are equal and they should fee! equal {ris hard to beleve thal in 1991 there are still places where black chddrer: and white children cannot ride on the same bus of eat in the same -estaurant or go to the same school. in other places in the world, chiidren are treated badly because of their religion or because they don't have the same traditions as everyone else Terry or velot towels in ments, all at Special 3997 34.99 Hand 2.99 Batn 3.99 Machine Port Alberni: 723-1161 Victona Mayfair 385-1136. Courtenay 338-6533. Sevenoaks 853-5689. Penucton Cherry Lane 493-1900 Kelowna Orchard Park 763-9200. Saimen Arm 832-5077. Nelson 352-6515, Trai 364-5644 Chulinvack Southgate Centre 732-5943 Ladner Tenant Park Square 946-8486 Nanaimo Woodgrove Centre 390-3301. Kamtoups 954-2900 tL assorted prints & embettish- Purchase prices Face 1.44 On Aug. 28, 1963, a famous man named Dr Martin Luther King |r gave a speech call- ed ‘| Have A Dream.” It was one of the greatest speeches of freedom ever made in the history of the United States la his speech, Or. King said his dream was that one day the United States would live out the true meaning of its creed that all men are created equal. | beheve that there are some things that you have to stand up and fight for in this woild. | believe that we must stop racism and prejudice. tf you won't stop it, who will? And the next time you see a group of people cf different nationalities, remember the beauty of the rainbow’s colors. oe ~ Assoned jacquard beach tovvels be] Mattress pads wth woven constuction & ekastc A corners Twin Reg 843 Double Req 1299 Queen Heq 1499 Assorted quailty duvet Covers with matching snams Twain Reg $60 29.99 B Daunte Reg $60 39.99 Queen Req $36 $4.99 Assorted yinyi Shower Lumtants Riny 15997 1747 ution your Voodward’s card VISA MasterCard Wednesday, June 5, 1991 - North Shore News - 47 +t e+ $+ + HHH HH HH HHH