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Show Dear daughter . It's important to keep balance Yet, sometimes, and I think this has happened with the pornography issue that has come to town, there are radical wings that play on our emotions, which don't address a subject fairly. Sometimes it is the radical left, but in the recent past I think it has been the radical right that has done so more consistently and more blatantly. By Bruce Lee Dear Krista: ' I'veagonized over this one. In fact, even now, as I sit down to write a letter to my four-year-old daughter, I'm not sure what I want to say, or even how I feel. You see, Krista, I don't like pornography. por-nography. I don't even like to talk about it, but it has come to the forefront of the news this week. On the other hand, I don't like censorship. Yet, both will affect you between now and the time you are 14 or 24. Your life will change somewhat, hopefully not too much, because of both. And I guess that's why I address this subject through you. It gives me a bit of a perspective I can gain no other way. Yet, rather than addressing the issue head on, which I probably can't rationally do right now, I will address it through a side-issue, and this I think will affect your life even more, because it creeps into so many facets of all our lives. You see, Krista, on every issue there are at least two sides. Generally, both sides are presented rationally and without too much emotion, allowing people to judge in their own minds what they feel is right or wrong, moral or immoral, good or bad. You know, I hope, that I have great faith in the ability of men, and girls, to govern their own lives and futures. And yet 1 must say something about; them. I'm not for, and you know this Krista, anything that would harm my children or myself in any way, and that includes pornography. Yet, my defininition of pornography is somewhat different than some people's, my faith in people to choose what is best for them is generally strong, and my belief in freedom whether it be freedom of the press, freedom of choice or one of many other freedoms is even stronger. So, Krista, we don't have HBO in our home, but if our neighbors do, I don't really think that makes them any worse as people. Somewhere, Krista, there must be a balance between what is right and what is necessary to keep that Tightness. The radical right is just as dangerous as the radical left for precisely that reason they lose that balance, and they try to have others climb up on the slanted platform with them. When you're 14 or 24, Krista, I hope you also hate pornography. I hope you also refuse to allow it into your life. I hope that I have taught you well. However, I also hope that you don't arbitrarily censure others' lives in the . name of Mom, apple pie and God. Af terall, I love all three of them too. Your dad. And that, Krista, is dangerous. You see, sometimes I don't necessarily disagree with what people do, but with their tactics. The dangerous thing about the radical right is its tactics, it plays to emotions and ideas that all of us hold dear. How dare we fight against Mom, apple pie and God? And yet that is precisely what many on the right side of the spectrum make us feel like when we disagree with them, for whatever reason. I think last week's brief uproar about pornography on cable television did just that. How dare I say anything against those fighting for the moral fiber of our great country? |