Gents,

a crisis has erupted recently in American politics. It distracts the nation from the serious business of electioneering with comparatively frivolous questions at the same time it addresses a fundamental weakness in higher education, which should not be abandoned to vulgar titillation. It would be a boon to politics & sex both if it could be addressed & those involved most in this matter would surely reap the benefits that accrue to benefactors of mankind. All this started with something to small, comparatively speaking, & so curious, that you would be excused from not taking it seriously. However, this kind of fever is best treated early, when it has not shown its dangers, rather than be faced years down the road, when, untreated, festering, it can become violent. So the young woman could no longer pay for her contraception deserves at the least the erection of a statue to give satisfaction to herself as well as those for which she so innocently & selflessly spoke out. This is one of the most serious problems created by the irresponsibility of the American male in his latest incarnation. At the same time, it is a new problem for new times & it requires the new manliness to address it.

It would be unmanly to go looking for causes on such matters, laying blame, as it were, at someone else's doorstep, & I will not encourage such attempts. Especially in our circumstances, which happily present a simple solution that would urgently set wrongs right. We would not fall limp, but give stiff assurance of our vitality & our enthusiasm to solve such a serious problem. It would give the young males of the species an added sense of responsibility & even of being providers. & at the same time it would assure young women that they have are not abandoned in-between sexual encounters. Only good can come of this & it will be more pleasant than any good heretofore advertised to the attention of student activism & activism more broadly...

The more mature among my audience have already guessed that I mean to suggest that the males pick up the tab for sex. I know this is not beyond the reach of the minds, hands, & wallets of many of you. I do not mean to insult you by suggesting I am being original. I merely want to say what many must have thought, but have not yet said.

In college, I knew not a few young males who had shown the unusual gallantry of paying for the abortions of women. The most generous among them did not even do it because they loved the woman or because they had received compelling evidence that they had impregnated the woman. It was just a show of their liberality, helping a young woman in a difficult situation, thus earning a reputation & encouraging the connection between familiarity & support. They showed they cared, to be brief.

Sympathy, however needs institutional help, especially on large campuses, so it would be important to use the various outreach efforts & diversity centers on campus to raise awareness of the needs for - & the advantages that redound to - young males who show this commitment to sexual diversity &, of course, feminism. Young males should be encouraged to discuss these matters among themselves & to try to find out how best to arrange their matters in order to solve this problem in the particular cases which arouse their interest.

The culture, above all, has to change, so as to remove the stigma from young males whose character really cannot be impeached, being protected by the shield of the most famous education America & the world can offer, & who would support & indeed lead in a manly fashion the efforts to install the kind of rules that would provide contraception for women's needs, taking into account fully the local situation & delegating decision-making to the parties most intimately concerned with & aware of the situation. Such young males would of course deserve the praise of their colleges & of important national associations for their assiduous efforts on behalf of young women's health issues & they would immeasurably benefit the prestige of their alma maters, no doubt. They would make every effort to come to know in an accurate & a deep sense the contraception needs of as many young women as practicable & would therefore never be open to the accusation that they do not know the problem or are not interested in solving it or are not competent.

A safety net, finally, has to be provided for young women in-between partners & for those sexual encounters which by their fleeting nature cannot easily lead to the knowledge & responsibility required to meet head-on the need, although of course even in such cases, as has been done sometimes in the past, the scientific study & the search for first-hand accounts could lead to the compilation of a kind of database which would be of the greatest utility, detailing the needs & the circumstance which arouse them, & thus this would provide full knowledge of these matters to the public & especially to those most interesting in solving this problem. Those who feel the thrust of the future, I am sure, understand there is a need for hands-on leadership to bring this matter urgently to satisfaction, lest it explode & put to shame or ridicule more people than would be affected by the more subtle solution I am proposing here.