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| Jeri Ryan as Star Trek Voyager's Seven of Nine, former spouse of Jack Ryan |
Jack Ryan's editorial should set an example for other media to "try to improve things." I republish it here so my readers can benefit from what it says and use it to oppose Internet porn as promoted by the American Library Association in their own libraries.
As Jack Ryan put it, "we hope that our library will reexamine with fresh eyes its assistance in the distribution of pornography," something for which the American Library Association has been recognized by Morality in Media's Porn Harms as one of the nation's leaders:
Values
by Jack Ryan, Owner of 22nd Century Media
Orland Park Prairie
10 April 2014
We hope that the Orland Park Public Library will reexamine its decision to be an access point for pornography. We also appreciate the people who bring these issues to the public's attention.
Anyone who speaks about values puts themselves at risk in two ways. First, those who prefer a valueless society will claim that the person speaking up is hypocritical. Because we are human and have all made mistakes, that statement will be true.
Second, that statement will possibly be supplemented by a specific assertion about that person that is contrary to an individual with a high moral standard. They will therefore argue that the person asserting the moral standard should be ignored. Then, the individual standing up for the value is maligned, not only with the accusation of hypocrisy, but also and possibly even worse, with some assertion about their life that he or she would prefer not to be made public.
In that way, anyone who would stand up for values is effectively bullied into silence or submission. However, if no one who has ever made a mistake can speak to promote a moral value, then that of course bans any human from speaking about moral values. And that outcome would be a bad result, because what kind of society will we have if no one can speak up about moral values in the public square?
If we would like to have a better society, then individuals must be able to assert publicly, without fear of character assassination, that there are some higher values or ideals that are worth aspiring to. And we are grateful for all people, including the ones who have brought this issue to the public's attention, who speak about the better angels in our nature.
It is with that background that we suggest that the library board revisit its decision to allow access to pornography at its public library. It may or may not be free speech to produce the material, but the First Amendment does not include that the government has to subsidize the distribution of it.
Citizens may have a point of view about many issues, and under the First Amendment are free to express them, but that does not mean everyone else has to pay money to make sure that point of view is disseminated.
It could be that our current culture has moved to such a place where we now have to start reproving the obvious, and we are willing to start doing so in future editorials if need be. However, to save our readers that proof here, we hope that our library will reexamine with fresh eyes its assistance in the distribution of pornography.
URL of the page: safelibraries.blogspot.com/2014/04/JackRyan.html
On Twitter: @22ndCM @IntolerantFox @JeriLRyan @LadyGaga @NBCSNL @OIF @OPPrairie @OrlandPkLibrary @Porn_Harms @SNLUpdate @VillageOrlandPk
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