Tuesday, October 02, 2007

STDs Prompt Eric Crafton Yet Again

It really doesn't matter that someone else is giving Metro money that Nashville won't have to spend to fund an AIDS program. It really doesn't matter that his question should have been asked in committee meeting that preceded tonight's council meeting. It really doesn't matter that he wastes council time.

Eric Crafton will not let any resolution on a grant that gives Nashville hundreds of thousands of dollars for programming stand in the way of expressing his socially conservative mantra about sexually transmitted diseases and teaching abstinence. Last January, Mr. Crafton stood on his righteous indignation to interrogate Brenda Gilmore on abstinence in a bill that she brought merely to put Metro into compliance with state ethics laws regarding a grant already approved.

Tonight, Eric Crafton once again rose to proclaim abstinence on a bill that would accept a federal grant for Minority AIDS Initiative programs. When bill co-sponsor Jerry Maynard introduced the bill, Mr. Crafton parroted the same question he asked Ms. Gilmore last winter: does the program teach abstinence? The Council Advisor stated that the grant was intended to assist HIV patients and their families.

I guess we should conclude that if Mr. Crafton were arbitrator of these grants, Nashville would be receiving no outside money unless the granted program taught abstinence. In tight budget times, that's no way to lead a city.

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