C. EVERETT KOOP, A SURGEON GENERAL to remember, died today at the ripe old age of 96. It must have been his clean living. What set him apart, other than his ceaseless crusade for healthy lifestyle choices and against smoking, is his apparently contractory beliefs.
Koop was a fundamentalist christian who approved of and recommended sex education and birth control, including distributing condoms to high school students. Its a rare day when any conservative, much less a fundamentalist christian, harbors such a progressive social and health care philosophy.
That just goes to show what a little scientific education will do for you. Koop was loyal to his religious beliefs his entire life, but that didn't stop him from using his power of reason to arrive as sensible conclusion, which does not always happen among deeply religious people.
Shrew conservatives analysts often lament the liberal make up of college and university campuses in america, as if they don't understand why such a high proportion of students and professors are liberal. Maybe intelligence and education have something to do with it.
When you think about intlligence levels of recent american presidents, who comes to mind, as educated intllectuals: clinton and obama, or bush and reagan? (be honest)
when reagan appointed c everett koop to the surgeon general position, he probably did so knowing that koop was a fundamentalist christian, and most likely assumed therefore that he was a conservative on social issues, such as sex education and birth control.
Reagan lived to regret his choice, and america benefitted from it, because if we need anything in this world, its sex education and birth control, not dogmatic puritanical religiosity. Thank you, mr koop.
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