I don't know how this hysteria thing got started. All I asked for was that
those people with a professional backround in photography to write a letter in
defense of Jock Sturges. If anyone is hysterical it is the folks who have gone
into the bookstores and who have torn up the books. About the closest parallel
to book burning I know of.
Real hard information is hard to get, but as I understand it, there is actions
going on in 14 states. The Sturges defense team I am told is not sure of what
is happening. I have heard that indictments have been made against Sturges
himself.
Defending Sturges may in some peoples mind brand you as a supporter of child
pornography. It's a highly selective and skilled attack. These folks aren't
the
innocent religionists out of the movie "The Apostle" who seemed to not have
had
a single political idea, but are skilled manipulators using religion to
further
a political agenda. All attacks on the right to free expression attempt to tie
the ideas expressed to the right to express it.
Be my guest and sample some of the current hysteria:
>>Claiming to be on a crusade against child porn, Operation Rescue founder and
"Christian America" advocate Randall Terry has been leading a band of zealots
into bookstores to tear pages out of a photography book. The books under
attack
are fine art photographs by Jock Sturges.
at :
<http://www.berkshire.net/~ifas/fw/9709/terry.html>http://www.berkshire.net/
~ifas/fw/9709/terry.html
Anti-censorship unite and say:
>
> Terry has acknowledged that his group, Loyal Opposition, is involved in
> tearing up the Sturges books. "By ripping up the books we are insuring that
> the prosecutors will get them as evidence. And we're destroying the
weapon. I
> mean, these are the tools of child molesters,"
At:
<http://www.freeexpression.org/artlit/sturges.html>http://www.freeexpression
.org/artlit/sturges.html
In Tennessee:
>
> A Williamson County grand jury in this Nashville suburb recently handed down
> indictments against the local Barnes & Noble store, charging it with
> "improperly displaying material harmful to minors," District Attorney Joseph
> Baugh said.
>
> "If you have certain kinds of material, it has to be displayed at a certain
> height, with a binder in front of it (and) a piece of opaque material
> covering the erogenous zones," Baugh said.
Does this apply to art being sold in a gallery as well? I've heard there is no
exceptions.
At:
<http://www.yahoo.com/headlines/971124/odd/stories/obscenity_1.htmlAnd>http:
//www.yahoo.com/headlines/971124/odd/stories/obscenity_1.htmlAnd
>
> Video store and library copies of the 1979 Academy Award winning film,
The Tin
> Drum were seized by Oklahoma City police, acting under pressure from
> Oklahomans for Children and Families (OCAF) during the summer. At least one
> copy was confiscated from the home of an individual.
Now don't get hysterical, but this is a 20 year old Academy Award winning
film!
OCAF is a group closely affiliated with the people at hand.
At:
<http://w3.trib.com/FACT/1st.censor.alert.html>http://w3.trib.com/FACT/1st.c
ensor.alert.html
>
> The next week, members of the Christian motorcycle club Heaven's Saints in
> Dixon rode to Nashville and protested, actually turning some patrons away.
> "They try to pass this stuff off as art and it ain't," says James Carpenter,
> 57, one member of the club who isn't tattooed.
In a lighter vein but serious nonetheless.
at: ahttp://www.worldmag.com/world/issue/10-11-97/national_1.asp
--Dick Sullivan