AntiFreeze's Journal: US to "purge" government web sites

I just submitted this as a story, but it's time for a journal entry about it too.

According to the American Educational Research Association's recent Action Alert, the United States government will be purging from government web sites any and all information that "either does not fit with the current administration's ideology or is 'outdated'."

This is atrocious. Regardless of your political views, it is unacceptable for an administration to remove public information because it disagrees with it. If you give someone half the information on an issue, then there is no way that person can make a full informed decision.

Obviously, a lot of the backlash around this is related to the Health and Human Services web sites. Information on abortion and proper condom usage is being removed (to name two of the big topics). Regardless of your feelings on abortion or teenagers having sex, removing this information is unacceptable. While abortion is legal, information on abortion needs to be available to those who consider it. If teenagers are taught that using condoms is bad for them, and that instead they should practice abstinence, then when they do have sex it will be without the use of a condom (there is tons of research which proves this point, some of which are on the HHS web sites). You may not want teenagers having sex, but denying them the information on how to do it safely just forces them to have unsafe sex, not to abstain.

Bush has already tried to Politicize Science, and this is the next step: politicizing the dispersal of information. It is not quite censorship, but damned close. And it disturbs me greatly.

Spread the word about this. Write your own journal entries. If my story isn't accepted, submit it yourself. People need to know about this, and it needs to be stopped. Send emails to your friends and mailing lists which may be sensitive to this, and if possible, follow the steps of the Action Alert and get the word to those in the government that this is unacceptable policy.

Censorship

[norwoodites]

This is the first step to get rid of the first amendment.

Re:Censorship

[DaytonCIM]

A bit of an over-reaction don't you think? Write your congressman and the Sec of Edu. Let your voice be heard.

Re:Censorship

[benzapp]

What do you care? Is it your divine mission to spread peace and love to slashdot? Maybe you under-react you effeminate wanker!

Nothing to add

[gmhowell]

I really have nothing to add. I didn't vote for Bush, I most certainly did not choose his cabinet. Hopefully some of the Republican apologists in the group will climb on and explain this away.

Well

[Com2Kid]

while I do agree in general that all information should be had and given;

• You may not want teenagers having sex, but denying them the information on how to do it safely just forces them to have unsafe sex, not to abstain.

I disagree with. If children (>18 then child) are taught to feel ahead the possible emotional ramifications of their actions, then they will practice abstinence. /end rant

Re:Well

[AntiFreeze]

Yeah, on closer inspection, I was making too much of a blanket statement.

What I meant to say was that children who had made up their mind to have sex, being denied information on how to do so safely, would consequentially default to having unsafe sex.

Re:Well

[Com2Kid]

Now that I will agree wholeheartedly with. :-D

Information should always be out there, hell I have read up on damn nearly how to make / use / enjoy every illegal drug that is out there.

The one thing I got out of all of those "illicit" documents?

Never do drugs. :)

Alternate Information

[DaytonCIM]

Well, I guess kids will have to get correct information from good websites from now on. .edu and .gov sites are horrible. Re-direct your kids to sites that truely give all the information.