1. What should this couple have done differently? Should they have used birth control, practiced abstinence, received better sex education, or did they do everything right?
Birth control as a last resort, because obviously teaching abstinence didn't do it for these kids. I would also say better sex education as well.
2. Do you agree with the young man being charged and not the young woman? Why or why not?
Technically, women often want men to guide the relationship, so in that principle, it's tempting to agree with it. I do think the young female should receive counseling at least, but the legal system is not going to enforce that. This young boy should be taught tough love so he doesn't repeat his extreme patterns in his behavior. Very much of this hideous crime was done on his part, therefore it is his responsibility. When a man (or in this case, a kid) allows his relationship to be governed with a baseball bat to replace any form of decency, it is wrong, and this kid allowed that pathetic line of thinking to get him in trouble.
3. Has the term "women's rights" been put to good use, or do you think it has been abused?
Both.
The female suffrage movement allowed women to vote and earn more respectable positions in our society. New Zealand beat us to that movement, but countries such as Switzerland didn't grant it until 1972. Now there is talk of spreading this freedom to the Middle East, which in my opinion, REAL WOMEN'S RIGHTS should be the focus. Rights to speak their mind, protect themselves, and have the same opportunities in their lives as men do.
It has been abused in the US for sure, in ways that I find outrageous. We use it as a scapegoat to disguise the true meaning of a major political issue to make the word sound comfortable and appealing. Same thing is happening with the word "choice." Nobody is "anti-choice." I think we all believe a choice is to be made, we just can't agree on when the time should occur.
In doing this, we are actually demeaning human rights. I think it's a perversion to compare a woman's right to vote to the fact that almost every third baby conceived in America is killed by abortion. (
http://www.abortionfacts.com/online_books/love_them_both/why_cant_we_love_them_both_17.asp) Thanks for making "women's rights" a partisan term.