Meat and Tater dropped by yesterday right after I got home. I'm thinking they were waiting for me.
At least they were good enough to hand me a refreshing cold beverage once in the door.
"Looks like you called the infrastructure bill, you just got the timeline wrong." Meat cracked open a beverage for emphasis on 'wrong'.
"Yeah, I keep forgetting a week passes in a day now."
Tater sat on the couch, looking out the window. "I believe this has been the prettiest fall I've seen down here. I don't want to get out of the woods." She looked away from the window and directly at Meat. "Is there a reason you've got something to sip on and I don't?"
Meat sprang into action, pulling a can from the bag and standing to hand it over.
"Too late pretty boy. Got any water SJ?"
"Of course." I hurried into the kitchen and grabbed a bottle from the fridge. "There's been something I've wanted to ask you about anyway." I handed her the bottle and sat back down.
"I ran into an article this week about Vermont being the only state that requires public schools to make condoms available to secondary school students."
"That's right."
Meat's pout turned into a wide eyed hoot. "Rubbers in high schools! Where were y'all when I was sixteen?"
I tried to ignore Meat. "That seems pretty out there, even for Vermont. How'd that happen?"
Tater grinned. "A republican wrote the bill, the legislature passed it, and the Republican governor signed it. That's how."
Meat hooted again. "Nobody'd ever go for that around here!"
Tater gave him the look. "Well maybe they ought to. Vermont's teen pregnancy rate is around 7 per thousand. Kentucky's is nearly 22. That's 3 times higher. And the latest teen pregnancy numbers for Pike County is 38 per thousand. You've got five times more little pregnant girls running around here than where I come from."
"Those are pretty striking numbers. Did you say Republicans made that law?"
She nodded. "Well, they had pretty broad support, but yeah. Gotta give credit where credit's due. From their point of view, fewer teen pregnancies mean few abortions."
I was quiet for a moment. Meat was pouting again. Finally, I got the words out of my mouth.
"Practical logic? They used practical logic? You're telling me Republicans did not deal with an issue by pretending it didn't exist until they couldn't, then doing nothing and praying it would go away? That's not real. You're telling me those Republicans exist?"
Tater turned her water up and chugged it. She looked at me, smiled brightly and burped. "That's what I'm telling you." She nestled back into the couch looking pretty pleased with herself.
Meat's grin overtook the previous pout. "Hahaha...I knew that one would get you. She's been waiting days to tell you that one and you walked right into it. Blew your little mind, didn't it?"
He pulled another beer from his back, opened it and handed it over to Tater. He tipped his in her direction. She tipped hers back.
I knew it. "Mind blown."