2/21/96, by Michelle A. Wallace, North Hollywood, CA


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Am I a subversive or a patriot?
(In one word, yes!)

Hello, my name is Michelle Wallace. I suppose I am what could be considered
your average american citizen. I take care of the ones I love, make an
honest living, pay my fair share of taxes, and so on. I'm not a religious
sort of person, though I follow a spiritual path of my own, I have my own
moral beliefs and convictions.

So why do I submit an essay protesting the regulations and censorship
imposed by the Communications Decency Act, when I personally have no
interest in searching for the "seven dirty words" on the net? Maybe it's
just that once again, I'm your normal everyday american citizen who's been
given the constitutional right to free speech. Only to have that snatched
away by the shortsighted minds of people like Senator Exon, and by
President Clinton.

The internet is a fabulous tool for gaining information on anything one
could possibly want to search for. It's not owned by anyone, I take up a
part of cyberspace right beside millions of other people. No own holds a
title deed to it. So how does the United States Government justify
legislating the actions of a worldwide conglomerate of individual users,
companies large and small, educational institutions and so on?

Abraham Lincoln said this government is "of the people, by the people, and
for the people." So, in a sense, I have more ownership of the U.S.
Government than the internet. Funny, that doesn't seem to mean much to
these lawmakers who've sat around despite our protests telling us what we
can and cannot say on the net.

Not only is that a violation of my rights as a U.S. Citizen. These
lawmakers are acting far out of their own jurisdiction, by imposing these
"standards" upon everyone in and outside the United States. Did the
citizens of any other nation have a say in the matter? Did we in this
country, really have much say in the matter? Pardon me if I misread my
history books, but I believe they said the U.S. government is a democracy,
not a global empire dictatorship.

Of course I would prefer that my children not download sexually explicit
images or instuctions on how to build pipe bombs. Shouldn't I have the
right and the responsibility to restrict my children from what I believe to
be inappropriate for them?

Censorship sometimes can be humorous in its effects. A large commercial
computer network once decided the word "breast" was unacceptable and
prevented use of that word online. Amazing how soon it was after they did
so that they were flooded with complaints from people afflicted with breast
cancer. Personally, all I could think about was how would I rewrite a
recipe for cajun chicken breasts to make it acceptable to their standards?

My site makes reference to various parts of the human anatomy as part of a
medical research study. Anyone of any age can gain uncontrolled access to
the project at any time. Will I be imprisoned and fined for distributing
obscene materials across telephone lines? Of course I can also be labelled
"subversive" for protesting the actions of the government which was
supposedly under my control.

Only very recently did the Soviet Union disband into independent states.
Americans gasped in horror at the stories of people being sent to gulags or
executed for speaking out against the government, holding religious
meetings or other acts which the government found to be objectionable. Is
the U.S. Government destined to repeat that?

The U.S. government cannot even balance a budget, yet they expect to know
what is obscene and what isn't? Let's not forget how many people were laid
off while the Republicans and Democrats had their little cat fights. Seems
to me both of these parties are sending a very strong message to the voters
in this election year, that is: The government is too big to control, yet
it keeps trying to control more and more aspects of our lives. Let's cut
the crap and vote Libertarian in '96!
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