Talk:Joycelyn Elders

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Much of this article text is taken from the external link provided (at surgeongeneral.gov). Is this a copyvio? - Furrykef 06:53, 1 Oct 2004 (UTC)

unless otherwise indicated, info from .gov sites is public domain. RickK 06:55, Oct 1, 2004 (UTC)

Ah, right. Sorry. - Furrykef 21:11, 1 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Contents 1 Quotes added on 8-1-06 2 "Encouraging masturbation" 3 her last name 4 Grammar Issue Within Quotation

[edit] Quotes added on 8-1-06

These quotes look like possible libel to me, I'm going to remove them from the main page until someone can provide legitimate citations. --Breenius 04:56, 4 August 2006 (UTC)

• "I've heard Eric Clapner - I think it's a wonderful thing that Eric Clapner the musician is putting on this event...I like Eric Clapner!" (referring to Eric Clapton)
• "We can decide that we've got to keep the guns out of the hands of our children. We can make safer weapons. We can make safer bullets."
• "Our Medicaid system had to be developed by a white, male, slave owner!" (Medicaid was created on July 30, 1965, over a hundred years after the abolishment of slavery)
• "Sex with a child does not a pedophile make - it doesn't make the child a pedophile!"

The Eric Clapner quote is rather famous and was played repeatedly on the Rush Limbaugh show.

The "safer bullets, safer guns" quote was from a speech Elders gave at the National Press Club while she was sitting Surgeon General.

Here is the quote on Medicaid: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=health&res=990CE4DB163AF935A15751C0A962958260

The "pedophile" quote was not Elders. The quote is "Sexual contact with a child does not a pedophile make," and it comes from a book by Judith Levine entitled "Harmful To Minors: The Perils of Protecting Children From Sex." Elders wrote the foreword for this book and was confronted about it on the May 29, 2002 episode of the MSNBC show "Alan Keyes is Making Sense." Elders writing the foreword was interpreted to have endorsed the book's contents and was given the opportunity on the program to defend herself. The transcript can be found here: http://www.renewamerica.us/show/transcripts/02_05_29akims.htm

Also, December 7, 1993: During a speech at the National Press Club, US Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders says, "I do feel that we would markedly reduce our crime rate if drugs were legalized, but I don't know all the ramifications of this... I do feel that we need to do some studies. In some of the countries that have legalized drugs, they certainly have shown that there has been a reduction in their crime rate and that there has been no increase in the drug use rate."

She got into quite a bit of trouble over that one.

[edit] "Encouraging masturbation"

It is a distortion to say that she "encourag[ed] masturbation among young people", and it is an insult to her career to say that she was "most famous" for one little remark. Some very innocent and entirely proper comments were fanned up by ultra-right-wing wankers into the fictitious idea that she wanted to have mandatory group masturbation in high-school health classes, and wishy-washy Clinton caved in to the nonsense and demanded her resignation. I think she should have told him to fire her ass. Shorne 07:49, 2 Oct 2004 (UTC)

I agree, except I do think it is, unfortunately, what she is best known for by the general public. That is indeed an insult to career, but it is not our job as Wikipedians to judge that in the article itself. I don't contest the edits you made, though, just pointing out that she probably is indeed most remembered for her ill-received remark. (Oddly enough, though, my political science teacher in college told this story, but somehow distorted "masturbation" into "anal sex". I watched his lectures through video tape, so I only met him twice, I think, so I wasn't there to correct him. I still regret not having sent him an e-mail of correction.) - Furrykef 22:25, 2 Oct 2004 (UTC)

You're probably right. I'm not trying to distort the facts. I do feel that "encouraging masturbation" is an exaggeration, at least in the case of that one remark, which was a lot tamer than it was made out to be. It's probably safe, and NPOV, to say that her outspoken comments on a variety of health-related issues attracted a lot of attention. Shorne 00:26, 3 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Understood, and I agree. - Furrykef 03:00, 3 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Is there a good way to find out what exactly Clinton said in his letter asking her to resign? I find the request for resignation over this "incident" to be much more shocking than the event itself (which was, after all, a direct answer to a direct question)

[edit] her last name

I just noticed, in this article, her name changes from Minnie Jocelyn Lee to Minnie Jocelyn Elders, with no explanation.

It might seem trivial, but did she ever marry anyone, at what time did this happen, and did his last name happen to be Elders?71.19.38.228 00:56, 10 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Grammar Issue Within Quotation

"The number of Down’s Syndrome infants in Washington state in 1976 was 64% lower than it would have been without legal abortion." The correct term for the aforementioned syndrome is "Down Syndrome" not "Down's." Is this a misquotation or an error of Elder's?