"The British Are Coming; The British Are Coming!"

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

This language serves me well as a blasphemous media executive, and person, who is often obscene, who writes freely and at times with obscenities and, speaks out about injustices, and petitions the Government for redress about issues relative to our Democracy.

On April 18th, 1775, almost 230 years ago, Paul Revere rode through the countryside warning America "the British are coming, the British are coming". The British were of course a threat to our soon to be born Democracy, and there have been of late new threats to it as well. Today, just make a small change in the Paul Revere message and say, "the censors are coming, the censors are coming or are already here"?

Our nation, of course "? has made no law respecting and establishment Of religion?" yet we have allowed religious forces to determine the meaning of "Freedom of the press", and have created in Government what can best be described as censorship. The Administration and the Congress have, and will continue to run rampant over our free press, stimulated (you should excuse the expression) by the Janet Jackson "Incident". I ask myself why the protectors of "god, or godliness can modify the first amendment when deciding what is or is not obscene on Broadcast Television, and now want to expand these rules to Cable and Satellite, and in the wings, the Internet. I will never understand how this all came about. How about banning some books while we are at it?

People of all ages have the opportunity in a truly free society to watch or not watch, listen to, or not listen to content transmitted over the air, by cable, satellite, Radio, IP delivery, DVD's, or whatever. They have the right as well to read anything or everything available in newspapers, magazines, books, pamphlets, interpersonal communications etc. Where is the opposition to this coming from? I think I know, and so does EVERYONE else.

In the middle sixties, my company Screen Gems Canada produced a weekly hour program called "Under Attack" Sort of a "Meet The Press" but with College students conducting the Q&A. We had as a guest the chief censor for the province of Ontario. The young people drove him nuts in that they were relentless with their questions. He said that censorship was needed to prevent people from being corrupted by obscene content, The censor about died when a student told him that the only people who became corrupted by this obscene content were the censors themselves, as they were the only people who viewed it, the censor lost his cool and began yelling at the panel of students, calling them all "Communists".

I have read and watched what can be categorized as "obscene" content my entire life. I raised 2 children the same way. My wife and I decided what they could read and what they could watch. I want to defend my grandchildren's right to be exposed to the same obscenities as long as they are OK with their Mothers and Fathers. I have never understood why the Government wants to "usurp" the rights of parents to make that decision. LEAVE IT TO MOMMIES AND DADDIES.

Perhaps, if I were wrong, the following course of action would solve the problem. Our present inadequate system seeks to punish, after the fact, the purveyors of obscene content, but only after the American public is exposed to it, and irrevocably harmed by it. This procedure is just not good enough. In order to protect the public, particularly our children, our nation should establish a "Department Of Content", led by a "Secretary of Content" that would review ALL content prior to it being published. By doing this, our nation can be protected, and the publishers of content secure that if they make any mistakes of judgment, that their Government will be there to "correct" the error. This system will not abridge the 1st Amendment at all, in that publishers will be free to say or depict whatever they wish, and the Government will only serve to remove obscene content before it is presented to the public.

Our Congress and FCC are in fact saying "you are free to say whatever you want to say (except the Carlin seven words) and show whatever you want to show, but we reserve the right to punish you for it as we see fit under the statute"

Now that's democracy in action.

Norman Horowitz
Sometime Libertarian
Sometime "Communist"
At all times, American

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