Governor's veto of sex bill will protect the wrong people
By Lee Cataluna
Advertiser Staff Writer
You come on like a dream, peaches and cream
Lips like strawberry wine
You're sixteen, you're beautiful and you're mine
When Ringo Starr sang those words in 1973, we snapped our fingers, hummed along and thought nothing of it. Maybe because we figured it was just a song and Ringo wasn't really up to anything unseemly.
But times change, sensibilities change, and the idea of an adult lusting after a teenager has a different weight today than it did two decades ago.
It would be nice to think that's because we're getting smarter about what is and isn't healthy for kids and what is and isn't appropriate for adults.
You're all ribbons and curls, ooh, what a girl
Eyes that sparkle and shine
You're sixteen, you're beautiful and you're mine
The lyrics make me cringe now. But guess what? Thanks to Gov. Ben Cayetano's veto of the bill that would raise the age of consent, if some skebei man is saying those things to your teenaged daughter, making her head swoon and her heart beat faster, leading her by the hand into a very adult relationship, there's not much you as a parent can legally do to stop him. It's weird at 16, but it's so much worse at 14.
Cayetano is correct that the bill that came out of the Legislature regulating the age at which teens can legally have sex is flawed. Though it is unseemly to think of a 19-year-old having sex with 14-year-old, 20 years in prison for the act seems excessive. However, if it's your 14-year-old daughter having sex with, say, a 25-year-old, you may think 20 years in prison isn't long enough. By vetoing the bill, Cayetano is essentially saying that it is better for 100 sleazebags to go free than for one misguided 19-year-old with poor judgment to be embarrassed by legal intervention.
Why won't Cayetano err on the side of caution — caution that would protect teens from adult predators, not caution that protects the dalliances of adults who find terribly young lovers exciting?
You're my baby, you're my pet
We fell in love on the night we met
You touched my hand, my heart went pop
Ooh, when we kissed I could not stop
Cayetano is admired for his brash leadership style. But untempered by a campaign for re-election, Cayetano's beholden-to-no-one attitude is getting hard to take, especially on such an emotional issue with such one-sided community support. If he were running for re-election, brash or not, I can't imagine he would have vetoed this bill.
In covering the story of the veto, one of the TV stations ran hazy video of Waikiki streetwalkers to depict the youth meant to be protected by this law. Though keeping young girls out of the sex trade is certainly one reason to raise the age of consent, it makes the issue seem more far-removed than it is. The reality is there are adults cruising high schools, shopping malls and neighborhood parks looking for young girls. The image of the rapist jumping out of the bushes and attacking a 14-year-old doesn't get to the core of this issue, either. These adults sweet-talk, seduce, give gifts, play on a young person's insecurity, and the truth is that they take away so much when they take a teen's innocence.
You walked out of my dreams and into my car
Now you're my angel divine
You're sixteen, you're beautiful and you're mine
All mine, all mine, all mine
