Listening to the Lake Travis Independent School Board of Trustees discuss a new human sexuality instruction at its June 24 meeting caused me to recall an old column I wrote years ago.

It is difficult subject matter, to be sure. I had written the op/ed the day after NBA legend Magic Johnson announced that he was HIV positive. so I went digging in my archives to find the piece, curious if it had the relevance it seemed to all those years ago.

As hard as it is to believe, it has been nearly 20 years since Johnson braved the media to make his announcement. The column appears here in print for the first time since its publication. At the end, I make some observations, given the advantage and hindsight of time.
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Right man, wrong message
November 1991
As a basketball player, Magic Johnson was then genuine article — a man who could match his extraordinary talent with a tremendous work ethic. Johnson transformed the game. A 6-9 point guard who could handle the ball like a small man. He even may have played the perfect game on the biggest stage — playing every position on the court during the final game of the 1979 championship series.

No, he never put up the scoring figures Michael Jordan does, but Magic was the ultimate team player, and, in my opinion, more versatile.

How good was he? Five championships adorn his fingers.

Enough said.

Off the court, Johnson has been even more spectacular. A tireless fundraiser, he has been responsible for collecting millions of dollars for worthwhile charities. Always quick with a smile, he was the first to shake off personal praise, redirecting it toward his teammates or pointing out that his abilities were simply a gift from God.

And, of course, his battles with Larry Bird are the stuff of legend.

He has always been a class act, through and through.

In a world where heroes are in short supply, Magic has always filled the description in full — until now.

No question, it took courage for him to come forward about his HIV infection earlier this week. Yes, he made a terrible error in judgment, was untrue to his wife; however, but at least he came clean — admitting it publicly. He didn’t have to. That’s going to have to be good enough. Gotta problem? Cast the first stone.

Although it is tragic that he has contracted the virus, paradoxically, he is exactly what the fight against AIDS needs. He is absolutely has all the right hallmarks to be the spokesperson who will carry the banner and educate the public on how to avoid contracting HIV.

Magic Johnson has ended the misnomer that AIDS was only a “gay” disease. His revelation has ended any illusions that the uniformed might foster.

Unfortunately, he is delivering the wrong message.

While safe sex protects the body, his missive is shallow. There is no panacea of protection where sex is concerned because it ignores the deeper, emotional aspects. And while his wife may have tested negative, everything is not all right, his actions have had devastating consequences.

The simplistic notion safe sex is the sole answer lessens his culpability of his actions, but worse still, it ignores the fact that there is no more treacherous terrain than sex — and for all those kids that idolize Magic Johnson — his rationalizations have to be confusing.

Instead of only singing the song of safe sex, he ought to be telling it straight — advocating abstinence, monogamy, and if you’re not going to, then by all means, practice safe sex.

Magic’s message plays to the 1970s myth of “free sex.” Sex has never been free. There are serious emotional and physical consequences that can drastically change lives. All this against the backdrop of fragile human psyches.

While Johnson may now be the everyman of the AIDS epidemic, children are particularly vulnerable to this new age mantra’s mixed message. Contrary to modern myth, we still need daddies and mommies and little kids that are taught the difference between right and wrong.

The youngest among us face daunting challenges. Concerns for latchkey kids, drugs, gang violence, massive educational woes and especially the spread of HIV among — particularly among teenagers — can all be traced back to the fissures in the family unit.

Virginity until marriage or a dedicated monogamous relationship — for both men and women — is not passé — but rather the best possible advice to young people.

None of this is to say that we need to return to the values of the past, they weren’t good enough, nor were they ever rooted in reality, but rather in the myth of human perfection.

We need have to do better than that. In the old days, there was only a lip-serving, double standard brand of morality. It was a world that had one set of rules for women and another set of rules for men.

If Johnson is to be the face of HIV, then his message needs perspective and substance.

Unfortunately, most men his age, have neither.
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Today, I am far more apt to believe a person’s private business is a personal matter. Perhaps we don’t always deserve to know every tidbit of information about a person’s private business beyond their public persona.

The unforgiving eye of the paparazzi changed my feelings on privacy forever.

A bit of humor also emerges — Johnson and I are very close in age, so my sermonizing strikes me as a bit hypocritical on my part. And in Magic’s defense, he did, in fact, moderate his message to include my very concerns within weeks of his initial disclosures to the media, realizing he was addressing kids just as much as he was speaking to adults.

The man has, at least by outward appearance, learned from his experiences and has an even longer legacy of solid leadership since he left basketball.

Now a grandfather three times over, I realize that there is no more difficult subject matter that any adult ever has to impart to a child.

There are some talking points made in the column that still have merit. Where men are concerned, we need to change the way we raise boys — respect and restraint are the most important character traits my testosterone-driven gender must learn. Domestic violence is the realm of losers. As a reporter and a former Child Protective Services volunteer, I have seen too many abused women and children — and have frequently taken them into my home over the years — to be anything less than an advocate that all people deserve basic dignity.

I am not the same person I was in November of 1991. I doubt Magic Johnson is either. What happened to him could happen to anyone in the haze of a bad decision. And we all make them from time to time.

When I was young, I thought I could change the world. But today, I am tempered by the realization that we can only do the best we can and know that love and tolerance are the only weapons we can wield that changes the hearts and minds of young and old alike.