Rush Limbaugh and High School Cafeterias

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I hesitate to give any more oxygen to Rush Limbaugh and his mean-spirited "entertainment." His three-days-worth of on-air name calling a 30-year-old Georgetown University law student ("slut" "prostitute") is only the latest incarnation of his penchant for making money spouting vulgarities. His remarks are gross and I am delighted he has lost 33 and counting sponsors. Perhaps inadvertently, he has managed to undermine real concerns about the lack of conscience protections for religious institutions in President Obama's health-care mandate.

Still, while politicians are taking to the airwaves to condemn Mr. Limbaugh's remarks,  in places as humble and as important as high school cafeterias, the name-calling of women continues. During lunch duty in a suburban high school cafeteria, I regularly hear words like "slut" "bitch" and "whore" flow from the mouths of seemingly sweet adolescent girls. And I wonder whether this generation of girls is growing up with any sense of themselves as special or beautiful. 
 
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