children accessing porn; adults turning off filterware

[earl young]

If filtering is indeed "forced" on libraries it will not be because it
is a minority position.  One way filters will become a majority position
is if the "library community" allows itself to rest on issues such as
"free speech" and "First Amendment" which - while imoprtant - often do
not have the gut value of kids and porn.  I'm not defending the
kids/porn rhetoric, merely mentioning that it is a useful way to rally
supporters of filtering.  The subject may be tedious, but the CDA
decision was merely the opening round of what promises to be a long and
bruising battle over Internet access in general.  Save the First
Amendment stuff for the lawyers.  You'll need an argument for taxpayers
that dosen't sound so ACLU-ish.  The CDA decision will, I believe, start
a process that resembles Roe-v-Wade.  The people who lost this time
will  sharpen their efforts, and the people who won the CDA decision
will grow increasingly aloof.  The people who lost will have the easier
time of it because they are out looking in, and that is a motivator for
their supporters.  So it may be a tedious subject, but unless it's one
we are all prepared to master, it's one that will return again and
again.  And it isn't clear that your view on the matter is a majority
view.  It may be within the library community, but a really good
activist could turn your arguments on themselves in front of most city
councils in the country because you aren't speaking - as I read it - to
the legitimate concerns that parents feel about their children.  The
library community will ignore that at their peril.  That's the driving
issue as I see it.