I think Further up Further in was Re: Black pages

[Marcia Tucker]

Bravo to Elisabeth Roche and others like her!

If anyone believes that this Telecommunications Bill will not 
discriminate, silence, or be used to prosecute
individuals unfairly than they are naive! 

I personally believe that this Bill has nothing to do with the
adult images, adult discussions, etc... which currently
reside on the Internet, it has to do with people who have a 
moral agenda.  In this country I thought that we had a separation
of church and state, obviously we are moving toward less
of a separation!  Scary thing is that people around me keep
on saying, "oh... they won't inforce it", and "they really 
are not moving toward censorship, just protecting our children!"
(I am a librarian and a parent)
This legislation has nothing to do with protecting children or anyone
else of a sensitive nature, if this were the case than other issues
in our society would be addressed which do threaten the mental and moral
health of our children!
 
I can not tolerate the bizarre idea that children have a "right" to
be on the Internet/World Wide Web without some direction via an adult
or teacher!  It would be similiar to having left a child alone in 
Times Square (NYC) without any direction or help!
The Internet can never be a baby sitting service or
a playground which allows children to freely roam
regardless of this bill!  There is already available
censoring software which could aid parents/teachers if they are worried,
so why the Bill?  

I guess in this election year if you can't kiss the babies you can
at least try to satisfy their parents by S.652 lip service! 


Elisabeth Roche wrote:
> 
> If our role is to be librarians, and eagerly (a given, right?) try to find
> information for the pursuing and perusing public, then we have no choice.
> 
> If by some abberation of the forces of the universe, in the United States we
> have found ourselves in a posture of civil disobedience, then at least our
> consciences are clear. (was that the correct conscience? I sure hope so:-))
> 
> We can follow through on this civil disobedience or we can work around the
> problem and we will all do what we think is the correct thing to do, being
> professional information scientists, let's not lose sight of this truth
> while others try to take this away from us.
> 
> Whatever each of us decides to do we still stand together in a fight against
> censorship and restriction of books and learning and information for all the
> people of the US who come from a tradition of our original colonial
> forebears commitments to access to information.(see Benjamin Franklin - smile)
> 
> [I wore my "I Read Banned Books button" all day and the grocery checker said
> "You read banned books?" Well, that got the attention of everyone!" )We got
> into a discussion right there in the line at the store. It was great.
> 
> Everyone around were bringing up books on the banned list (they were all
> correct, amazing what the "normal real people" we are all part of know isn't
> it:?]
> 
> It turned into quite a fun "I read Banned Books" episode at the grocery
> store...
> 
> Be ready and use it I say!:-)))  I did say, "look at my website, you could
> read banned books there",
> 
> The checker said really, "give me your url!!!!
> 
> So, talk about it and make it happen!!"
> 
> Elisabeth Roche ace at opus1.com
> http://www.opus1.com/~ace
> serendipity RULES!