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[Image]What Freedom Means to Me

     "I disaprove of what you say, but I will defend to      [Image]
     the death your right to say it." --Voltaire

     I'm very frightened of what my government has done in passing the
     Communications Decency Act. I'm not only frightened for myself,
     but for my children, and my children's children, and their
     children to follow.

     They have buried the First Amendment in a shallow, self-righteous
     grave without the Honor it deserves and requires.

     At only 20 years old I am an artist, a photographer, whose art
     tends to be on the erotic side, dealing with the female form,
     mainly unclothed (such as my photograph to the right). I see the
     female body as a very beautiful and expressive thing that can
     tell more stories with a slight gesture, a look in the eye, than
     almost any other subject. I enjoy photographing the female body,
     I enjoy looking at it, I am intrigued by it, and I am drawn to
     it.

     I may feel more strongly about the First Amendment and what it
     stands for than somebody who works a normal 9-5 job, because I am
     an artist. Most peoples living doesn't depend on the laws of
     freedom of expression as mine does. There are already laws on the
     books preventing me from photographing someone under 18 for the
     type of work I do. I obey these laws and understand why they are
     there. But, the same picture I can use to advertise in a
     newspaper I'm not allowed to use on-line. I don't see this as
     regulating the Internet, I see it as a bold face attempt to
     censor and control the Internet by the American government.

     Not only does it affect my ability to do business on the
     Internet, it affects EVERYONE's right to communicate ideas
     freely. The freedom to communicate ideas is the freedom to grow.
     Remove the right and you have a tyrant government that prevents
     the growth of new ideas, both good and bad. We are enough of a
     brain-dead society. We don't want or need government to censor
     this great new medium of communication from free thought also. Do
     we want to let the government turn this world into one boring,
     uninteresting, false sense of happiness, G-rated society? I
     don't.

     With the CDA passed and up in the air in court as I write this,
     the government cannot prosecute (yet!), but can gather info on
     violators. They will search for "offensive" pages, and come down
     on them like a ton of bricks. I see this as a hi-tech version of
     a witch hunt, but I'm not changing my plans to put up my gallery
     of work, most of which would fall under the "indecent"
     definition. I would rather die a witch fighting for my beliefs,
     than die a coward too scared to speak!

     LET THE WITCH HUNTS BEGIN!

     Reed M. Thayer
     rmthayer@accessone.com
     Seattle, WA

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Copyright © 1996 Reed M. Thayer                                     [Image]
Thursday, February 22, 1996