Author Archives: jtjim

Me Jane, You Tarzan

Jane Jimenez

Jane Jimenez

June 18, 2004

Growing up as a Jane, it was inevitable that I would be “married” to Tarzan by proxy.  Jane was an uncommon name, and it seldom went unnoticed.  “Hey, Jane, where’s Tarzan?”

Tarzan played by Johnny Weissmuller was the dream man for many a woman in the 30’s and 40’s, a man’s man for the guys.  A stud of the first degree, Tarzan trained elephants, fought hostile natives, battled a giant octopus, rescued fair maiden Jane, and…raised a son.

In the 1939 film, Tarzan Finds a Son, Cheetah rescued a baby boy, the only survivor of a small plane crash in the jungle.  And for eight movies Tarzan and Boy were inseparable, a duo, a team, a flash of figures flying through the jungle air together.

Boy was played by another “Johnny”…Johnny Sheffield.  Already a professional actor at the age of seven, he was one of over 300 boys who answered the casting call.  “I’ll never forget going with one of the world’s all-time greatest swimmers to the Hollywood Athletic Club for the test,” Sheffield tells Matt Winans many years later.  “Big John knew I couldn’t swim; that didn’t make any difference to him. He knew Tarzan would have to teach Boy how to swim anyway.”

When Little John arrived at poolside, Big John dove into the deep end of 10-foot tank and swam out.  “He told me to jump in and come to him. I took a big jump and when I reached him he had his knee up to form a bench for me to sit on. When I sat on his knee, it was like a concrete abutment and I knew I was safe even though we were in the DEEP end of that BIG WATER FILLED TANK! I was secure even though he was treading water! Johnny was smiling at me.”

Swimming was just the first of many adventures for Little John.  “The soundstage was fitted out with all kinds of vine-covered ropes and rigging and I, for the first time in my life, got to swing on vines….Tarzan taught me to eat when I was hungry and sleep when I was tired. There weren’t any arguments; I did what Tarzan told me to. He gave me values. He taught me to tell the truth; Tarzan hated a liar.”

While we remember today the jungle stories of Tarzan, it is touching to hear what Sheffield remembers about his real Jungle Father.  “Johnny Weissmuller was a Star (with a capital “S”) and he gave off a special light and some of that light got into me. Knowing and being with Johnny Weissmuller during my formative years had a lasting influence on my life.

“The most important thing was that Johnny Weissmuller had time for me.  This man might well have been aloof and not had any time for me other than what was written in the script. This was not the case. Johnny Weissmuller loved me and I knew it and I love him. When I was near, he always had a kind word for me when I might easily have passed by unnoticed.”

Big John loved golf and always had his clubs in the trunk of his Lincoln Continental.  On the set, he would call Little John over to “hit a few balls” together, and they improvised an early form of “Frisbee,” flying the top of a 35mm film can lid.  “It was fun doing things with Big John….He encouraged me always. He instructed me and said, ‘You can do it, Johnny; go ahead and try.’”

If art imitates life, we can be grateful for the relationship of a grown man and a young boy that translated into the fantasy of Tarzan and Boy.  “I learned spiritual things from my jungle father… When Boy got out of line, Tarzan was there to point it out. ‘Boy, Bad!’ Then in a twinkle of dad’s eye I was forgiven and we went on to experience more of this life adventure.

“From these events I learned spiritual values. From the things I could see, feel, hear, and touch, I learned about what I could not see, feel, hear or touch. I learned that I had a spiritual father who loved me and that I could always count on him for guidance and protection; all I had to do was call. I learned then and know now when and how to call for backup, thank God.”

Today, when we turn on an old Tarzan film, it’s a good reminder of what really matters. In eight movies, Boy mastered the art of living in the jungle.  Better still, in real life with Big John, he learned the art of living period.  No wonder.  He studied with the best of jungle-dwellers… a man of character, a friend, a dad.

Happy Father’s Day!

 

To read the full on-line interview of Johnny Sheffield by Matt Winans, go to: http://www.tarzanmovieguide.com/sheffint.htm

 See Archives for past editorials.

Blinded by Love

Jane Jimenez

Jane Jimenez

June 11, 2004

America’s love affair with the condom…it’s like a bad love affair where the lover cheats on us time and again.  After each betrayal, we get a tearful apology and renewed promises…only to take up with the same bad lover and walk into the same tired lies again.

Condoms are nothing new.  They have been traced back to 1350 BC when ancient Egyptian tribesmen used sheaths to protect themselves against infection, injury and insect bits.  Cave paintings dated 100-200 AD in southern France provide the earliest evidence of European condom use.

Almost thirty years after cultivation of the rubber tree began in the 1870s, the Durex trademark was first registered.  By 1993, annual production of natural latex condoms reached a total of 8.5 billion units.

Like all consumer products, condoms are tested, and reports on their reliability have been carried in the trusted Consumer Reports.  It’s enough to make the average person accept with calm assurance that if we sell enough condoms, we can make America safe.  So how safe are we…really?

In 1982, a major crisis ushered in the modern “age of the condom.”  Previously used to prevent pregnancies, condoms became the only available weapon against the dark unknown threat of the HIV virus.

From the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, the promises of condoms were measured against our fears of the unknown…HIV.  No one was certain exactly how it spread:  kissing, sharing drinking cups, public swimming pools, and gym locker rooms?

One thing was certain.  HIV virus was spread through sexual contact, and we grabbed the nearest band-aid…the condom.  It was better than nothing.  The real question today after thirty years of condom use is, “How much better than nothing?”

Modern risk management analysts make a living out of telling us how many times on the average we can safely ski, climb rocks, and fly in airplanes before we die.

What if you knew you had a 20% chance of dying every time you got into your family car?  Well, when talking about pregnancy and teenagers, condoms have a greater than 20% FAILURE rate in preventing pregnancy.

What if you knew you had an unlimited chance of getting infected with the disease that leads to death by cervical cancer?  Well, when talking about condoms, there is no clinical proof that condoms prevent HPV infection if you have sex with a person infected with the humanpapilloma virus (HPV).  This virus causes over 97% of cervical cancer which kills more women each year than AIDS.

What if you knew that, no matter how many condoms you’ve used during your life, genital herpes and HPV virus live on the human body outside areas covered by the condom?  Is it any wonder that one in five people over the age of 12 today are infected with genital herpes and that one million Americans acquire genital herpes infection each year?

Finally, consider those who promise parents that children can be taught to use condoms “consistently and correctly.”  Really?

Major international HIV studies have proven that even when married couples knew they might pass the HIV virus to their uninfected spouse, these couples failed to use condoms consistently and correctly every time they had sex.  These adults actually chose to expose their spouse to the deadly AIDS disease.  Can we really believe our children will do better than this?

Is this the stuff love is made of?  Twenty percent risk of pregnancy?  Unlimited risk of HPV infection leading to cervical cancer?  A life with an incurable genital herpes infection?  If the airlines operated with risks like these, who would ever get on a plane?

The truth is, condoms are like bad lovers…a few good times followed by pain and suffering.  Condoms have been around for thousands of years, and for thousands of years people still knew the best place for sex was inside a loving, monogamous and faithful marriage.  It’s an old message, and it’s still a true message.

There’s a day of reckoning for every bad love affair, a day when we declare the end to lies and deceit.  When will we be ready to declare the truth about condoms?  How about today?

 

See Archives for past editorials.

 April 30, 2004:  Condoms: A Failure to Protect

AIDS: Importing the Cure

Jane Jimenez

Jane Jimenez

June 4, 2004

Stephen Langa knows about AIDS and failure firsthand.  And that’s why he also knows about success.

Stephen is from Uganda.  The devastation of the African continent by AIDS is personal: his own younger brother died.  Stephen works in the schools where hundreds of thousands of children experience the loneliness of life without parents.  To date, nearly two million Uganda children are orphans because of AIDS.

It takes looking failure full in the face to be able to appreciate success.  And that’s why Stephen came from Uganda to visit the United States.  He brings us a story of success:  Uganda alone in the world is turning the tide in the battle against AIDS.

“I come from Uganda,” Stephen tells his audience, “and HIV has devastated our continent and our country.  In Uganda, especially in the early 90s we had whole villages wiped out, where the entire adult population was wiped out….Everyone of us in Uganda has either been infected or affected by HIV.”

Responding to the magnitude of the AIDS epidemic, Stephen left his career in electrical engineering and founded Family Life Network, an organization that sends teachers into the high schools to teach young people one simple message.

All over Uganda, teachers are working to prevent HIV infection “by teaching what we call value-based sex education in secondary school,” Stephen says.  “Now, by value-based we mean sex education that has morals in it.  That’s what we teach.”

The message is as simple as ABC.  “A” stands for a personal commitment to abstain from sexual relationships until a person is ready for marriage.  “B” stands for fidelity inside of marriage…”B” faithful.  Finally, “C” refers to condom use.

But Stephen warns us about America’s reliance on the condom.  “Condoms are not 100% safe.  You see, human life is precious….Now if there’s a chance of failure, it means we are risking precious life.  A life is priceless. So we want to have something that can actually protect our people.”

And this is where Uganda has set the standard for the world, becoming a beacon light of hope against the rising tide of AIDS infection.  Uganda is committed to A and B.  Totally committed.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and his wife Janet provide the national leadership and tone for their country by emphasizing the value of time-honored Uganda cultural practices.  They have inspired the Ugandan people to return to abstinence and marital fidelity.

Under their leadership, the commitment of a child toward abstinence until marriage is given dignity and support.  Students sign commitment cards, and their name on the line is more than a momentary gesture to please a teacher.  It is a personal promise they are willing to keep.

Why do students in Uganda honor their pledge to remain sexually abstinent outside of marriage?  Stephen tells us it’s more than their fear of becoming infected with HIV.  “We go out there and we teach these young people about sexuality.  And we found out that if you teach sexuality and teach young people about sexuality in relationship to all of life, then they understand it.  They see the big picture.  When you see it from the big picture point of view, they understand it and they behave.”

The results are in.  Uganda has demonstrated a cure for the AIDS epidemic.  In the early 1990s Uganda had one of the worst African AIDS infection rates, but by 2001 Uganda had reduced HIV by 70 percent.

Cambridge researchers confirm that Uganda’s success is “linked to a 60% reduction in casual sex.”  And they confirm Stephen’s warnings about condoms.  “Despite substantial condom use and promotion of biomedical approaches, other African countries have shown neither similar behavioral responses nor HIV prevalence declines of the same scale.  The Ugandan success is equivalent to a vaccine of 80% effectiveness.”

Americans, take note.  While our companies are loading crates filled with condoms onto ships bound for Africa, Stephen makes us realize that America is exporting failure.  It’s time to make a change.

Is there a cure for AIDS?  Yes!  And Americans have the answer within reach, imported straight from Uganda.

 

See Archives for past editorials.

April 30, 2004:    Condoms: A Failure to Protect

March 26, 2004:    Abstinence: The Real Deal

What If

Jane Jimenez

Jane Jimenez

May 28, 2004

A basket of condoms sits on the counter in many of our nation’s high schools.  Down the hall, educators are busy teaching students how to put condoms on the finger of their partner and assigning them homework to shop with their friends for condoms.  “If your parents would object,” they are told, “don’t tell them.”

Abstinence is mentioned.  It’s a choice.  Then students are told by their teacher, “When you are mature enough to have sex, this is how you do it.”  And she hands them a condom.

COMPREHENSIVE sex education is a modern effort to “help” our children learn about sex.   Yet, as we pour more condoms into the basket, and give students an “A” in condom shopping, there is no clinical evidence to prove the effectiveness of condoms in preventing syphilis, Chlamydia, HPV, or genital herpes.  For teens, condoms have a nearly 20% failure rate in preventing pregnancy.

While parents are worried, the “professionals” pull out roomfuls of research that insists our kids need to have COMPREHENSIVE sex education.  And how could research ever be wrong?

Sometimes it helps to take ten steps backwards and look at things through new glasses in order to see the obvious.  What if we were talking about cigarettes instead of sex?

COMPREHENSIVE Tobacco Education – What If?

Imagine…somewhere in the hallowed halls of governmental programs…

Sarah stared at the reports on her desk.  A major government study had just concluded that kids are still smoking.

Sarah knew the truth of it on a personal level.  Her son Tony complained to her about the bathrooms at his junior high.  He hated to use them because they were a hideout for the kids who smoked.

Maybe this was her chance.  She had been given the special assignment to draft a Comprehensive Tobacco Safety program.  She could make a difference for the teens in America.

Logistics suggested the perfect place to reach all teens would be in the schools, a school-based comprehensive program.  Thinking of the kids at Tony’s school, Sarah knew no matter what she did, no matter what she said, some kids were going to smoke.  Struck by this insight, she turned to the computer and began writing.

“While we know the healthiest choice for teens is to abstain from smoking, we are taking a reality-based approach.  Some kids will insist on smoking, no matter what we say.  In order to gain their attention and reinforce their self-esteem, we will suggest that some people choose abstinence.  Then we will provide lessons for this target group of teen smokers.

“A one-week series of lessons for every student will focus on safe smoking, showing that cigarettes with filters will reduce the risk of lung cancer.  Because many students and their parents smoke, we won’t offend anyone by declaring smoking ‘wrong’ or ‘bad.’  We will simply label it a choice.  We won’t tell teens what to do.  As a values-neutral program, we will suggest that mature people, if they choose to smoke, will make sure to smoke safely.  To this end, we will invite teens to participate in focus groups advising us on the best brands of filtered cigarettes and smokeless tobacco to put in the school’s guidance office.”

Sarah sat back and closed her eyes.  In the quiet, as the clock softly chimed, her eyes popped open in a moment of divine inspiration.  She turned back to the computer. “Government funding will pay tobacco companies to develop and teach this Safe Smoking program!”

With the finished proposal in hand, she walked into her Director’s office.  “Here,” she said, plopping the folder down.  “It’s a comprehensive plan to teach our children about tobacco.  What do you think?”

 

See Archives for past editorials.

 April 16, 2004:   One Stop Shopping

Ruling by Exception

May 21, 2004

My dad was a lifelong smoker.  He tried his first cigarette at eleven years old, and the habit stayed with him until his death at 62.

My father died of lung cancer.  I tried to convince him to stop. Research on smoking was mounting everyday.  Smoking kills.

The biggest challenge to my pleas to dad came from other smokers.  At least once each year a major newspaper would print the photo of a hundred-year-old man who swore he made it to the century mark by smoking a cigar every day.  Mr. Exception.

Mr. Exception broke the rules on smoking, and he won.  We break rules all the time, and we make it.  We cross the street without looking, we forget to floss, we dash to the store and leave our seatbelt undone.  And we survive.

Nowhere does this rule of the exception shine brighter than with the subject of marriage.  Ms. Exception…she proves that marriage doesn’t matter.  She had ten children and raised them all herself, the veritable Enjoli woman who brought home the bacon and fried it up in the pan …by herself and for herself…and her brood of ten.  And that’s not all.

All ten children made it through college with PhDs, and today they drive Porsches and live in mansions on hundred-acre estates.  As a group, the terrific ten have developed the cures to the top twenty diseases worldwide.  Mankind will survive now, thanks to them. And they owe it all to their single mom who sacrificed everything in life to make it happen.  If she can do it, you can, too.

Single moms deserve our applause for making it.  But parents beware.  In our hurry to encourage women who raise families on their own, we run the risk of making the exception the new rule.

In the modern era of cultural redefinitions, Ms. Exception has been lifted high on a modern pedestal to make a woman feel guilty that she ever wanted something as ordinary as a husband, as common as a simple home where two people work together in love and harmony to raise two children.

How mundane.

How ordinary.

How limited in imagination!

Surveying the American landscape with its single moms and children, the visual message for our children is clear.  Marriage is an option.  But it isn’t necessary.

Movie actresses lead the charge.  Slipping in and out of marriages like changing dresses in the boutique, using their ample cleavage to lure the next boyfriend into a romp and a magazine cover, they vow that life was never so good as when they were freed from the shackles of traditional families founded on lifelong marriages and fidelity.

By failing to embrace marriage, we effectively give our daughters a new vision of the future.  We tell them, “You could be the next Ms. Exception, if only you would dream and plot and plan and scrape and skimp and save and struggle.  You could do it all on your own.  You could.”

After all, they could be the next Ms. Exception?

Is that the best we have to offer them…to let them struggle for success on their own?  What about the tried and true formula?  Marriage?

As one American voice, we could actually admit that social engineering has done nothing to create a better chance for success than a marriage between a man and a woman who love and honor each other till death do they part.  We could set marriage as a goal for our children and work to teach them how to succeed.

Where better for children to learn the true magic of unconditional love than in a family where Father and Mother model the daily work of giving and forgiving, of taking turns, of sharing the sublime and the mundane with the one special person they gave their life to?

Sure, it’s not easy.  It takes commitment and hard work…planning, forgiving, regrouping, and sacrificing.  But, for those who make it, the joy of a family together throughout a lifetime makes it all worthwhile.

The choice is fairly simple.  We can actively teach and guide our children to plan for and make families through marriage.

Or…we can let them do it themselves.  On their own.  They could be the next Ms. Exception.  Wow!  Imagine that!

See Archives for past editorials.

April 23, 2004:   m…m…m…Married?

May 14, 2004:   Order in the Courtroom!