Shannon Taylor [Image] [ Prev | Next | Index ] 2/14/96, [Image] shay@frugal.com Washington State, USA How I feel about the Internet, Free Speech and The telecommunications bill & Decency Act Essay By Shannon Taylor, shay@frugal.com. ------------------------------------------------------------ My name is Shannon Taylor. I am married, female, 26 years old, and I live in the Puget Sound area of Washington State. "The Internet" What is it? Many things to many people wouldn't you say? I spend much of my time out here in cyberspace. I like it out here. Why? Well it is so unlimited. There is no better source for information, no better way to communicate with others. There is so much friendship, camaraderie, helpfulness, diversity and a great sense of community here. It is truly a worldwide community as well. I have spoken to people all over the world, which is something I never have done before. I have information at my fingertips, unlimited resources at my disposal. Right here in my living room? Don’t you just find that amazing? What a technological accomplishment! I would say that whatever it is you want, whatever you are interested in, whatever you would like to learn about, or discover- is here! It isn’t bottle fed to me either, I am in charge. I can go and look at whatever I want, whenever I want to see it. I have the right to choose what I see or don’t see. Not only that, I have my own home page. I can put whatever I want there. I couldn’t publish my own newspaper, I couldn’t display my artwork on any street corner but I can publish my own home page. It is available to anyone around the world. Wow! Really The Internet is everything and anything..... It is unbiased and uncensored, whatever you want is here- well, up until now anyway. There are those who want to take that away from you and I! I don’t know about you, but that just makes me mad! Probably the Internet means something different to you. Maybe it is a way for you to easily and cost effectively communicate with relatives or friends that live far away. Maybe you use it for work, and it helps you to be more productive. Maybe you use it to get important information you have out to others. Maybe you sell your products or services, or you buy products or services. Maybe you use it to get the news, or listen to a sports broadcast. Maybe you just waste time out here. Maybe you use it to meet new people. Maybe you download software, or maybe you even download ....... PORNOGRAPHY! Some people think that is what it is all about- PORNOGRAPHY! Protecting children from pornography. Certainly they aren’t trying to protect me- I’m an adult over the age of 21 and if I want to view PORNOGRAPHY then I will. I can rent it at the video store, buy a book or magazine, go to a movie, call a BBS, and I should even be able to view it on the Internet..... So if the issue is not keeping it from me, but your children, then there are better ways to do that. You can take action and protect yourself and your children. IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO PROTECT YOUR CHILDREN. If you think it should be the governments or anyone else’s responsibility then you don’t deserve to have children. There are children being shot and killed right on our streets. Children are being killed this very moment by guns, by drunk drivers and even their own parents. Shouldn’t you be concerned about that? There are children being raped, molested and abused by not only strangers, but their own parents. Shouldn’t you take action against this? The government doesn’t seem to be able to do much about these tragic things, so why do you think they will be able to keep PORNOGRAPHY from your children? Well, leaving that aside, there are people who want to censor all sorts of things, anywhere from what we watch, to what music we listen to, to what we eat and drink. Why? It is your responsibility to protect yourself and your children. If you don’t like what is on TV then change the channel. That goes for anything else. You can’t legislate morality. Who decides what is right and wrong? We are a free country, for now. We should all be worried about keeping our freedom. You are allowed to worship God the way you see fit because we are a free country. What if you couldn’t? What if someone decided to tell you when, where and how to worship? If you think restriction, control and censorship is the way to go because you don’t like or do whatever the issue happens to be at the moment, then you should beware. It will come around to you. One day it will be something you believe in that will be threatened. We aren’t talking about PORNOGRAPHY, we are talking about FREE SPEECH! This does affect us all. If you are on the Internet then either it is something you hold dear, and want to protect, or if not then why don’t you get off the Internet and stop trying to spoil it for everyone else. If you live in this country then our freedoms, our Constitution and the right to free speech is something you hold dear and want to protect or if not, then why do you live here? Why not move to some country where you can go to jail for saying what you think. If you are really concerned about protecting your children from pornography, then there are better ways to accomplish that than taking away our rights. All of our rights- eventually the rights of the children you wish to protect. Most of us have no idea how misinformed we really are. The news media puts their own slant on what they say. They have their own agenda. DO NOT FOLLOW BLINDLY ALONG! Inform yourself. Find out what is really going on. Protect your rights! Please don’t sit idly by and watch as basic freedoms are being stolen from us. Do Something! Even if that means just being informed. -Shannon "When they took the fourth amendment, I was quiet because I didn't deal drugs. When they took the sixth amendment, I was quiet because I was innocent. When they took the second amendment, I was quiet because I didn't own a gun. Now they've taken the first amendment, and I can say nothing about it." ---------------------------------------------------------------------- There have been [Image] visitors since the late addition of this counter on Feb. 28, 1996. Counter provided by Web Counter you can have one too! Keywords: "Washington", "Puget Sound", "www.frugal.com", "Freedom".