Re: Nudity and NSA

[P3D <MarkKernes@xxxxxxx>]

I wish to apologize to anyone who took offense my posts in Digest #1258, but
the topic of censorship is one which I confront every day in my job. I
believe there is no middle ground between censorship and free speech (the
display of photographs being included in my definition of "speech"). Free
speech which is censored "just a little bit" is still censored speech. 
It was by no means clear from Michael Kaplan's original post that he was
referring to any particular type of nudity, but my comments were directed to
nudity in general. As I am well aware that public displays of explicit sexual
material to people under the age of 18 is illegal, I assumed he was talking
about simple nudity such as one might find in a nudist colony or an art book.
Perhaps I simply haven't attended enough NSA programs to understand
differently.
While I fully support John Bercovitz's suggestion that the moderator post a
notice or announce at the beginning of a presentation whether nude photos
will be shown, it's always a little painful to be reminded of the fact that
there ARE those in America who value their First Amendment freedoms so
lightly that they are satisfied to let such freedoms float on the sea of
public opinion. (I do not refer to anyone in particular with this comment.) I
do not believe that those who founded this country would find that position a
comfortable one.  I am also chagrinned that some parents still believe that
their children will be harmed by seeing nude bodies, as there is no
scientific evidence to back up this view. Certainly, children will ask
questions about it, but honest answers will not harm them.
Again, let me apologize for "venting" a bit, but free speech is a very
important societal issue in the modern age.

Mark Kernes (MarkKernes@xxxxxxx)


------------------------------