Quick Links for Future Reference

Washington State Institute for Public Policy's list of juvenile civil justice. The Ruth Dykeman Children's Center, which includes residential treatment programs for both survivors of and perpetrators of sexual assault. HB 1473, a bill currently in the Washington state legislature that would require additional information be given to students receiving sex education to understand the laws surrounding adolescent sexuality and the potential consequences should they be caught breaking those laws. Invisible Children blog provides a modest proposal for the end of criminalization of children in all forms, and seeks to create a dialogue about assisting and supporting our youth rather than impoverishing and punishing them. Also on that blog is a call for civil justice along the same lines. (Links found through one of my LinkedIn groups.) Blogger Greta Christina writes about sex and the off-label use of our bodies, arguing for a different perspective on the non-procreative sex acts that humans engage in across the world. While the whole of her entry is inspiring and eloquent, the heart of it lies here:

Off-label uses of body parts and biological functions aren’t just acceptable and morally neutral. They are some of the most beautiful, honorable, and deeply treasured parts of the human experience. Human beings took our animal need for palatable food . . . and turned it into chocolate souffles with salted caramel cream. We took our ability to co-operate as a social species . . . and turned it into craft circles and bowling leagues and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We took our capacity to make and use tools . . . and turned it into the Apollo moon landing. We took our uniquely precise ability to communicate through language . . . and turned it into King Lear. None of these things are necessary for survival and reproduction. That is exactly what makes them so splendid. When we take our basic evolutionary wiring and transform it into something far beyond any prosaic matters of survival and reproduction . . . that’s when humanity is at its best. That’s when we show ourselves to be capable of creating meaning and joy, for ourselves and for one another. That’s when we’re most uniquely human.