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Show American Fork Citizen New Utah! - Wednesday, April 7, 1999 - Page 2 Opinion Winning the pornography war After two-and-a-half years and two trials, the public screening of dozens of hours of sexually explicit videos, Utah County is no closer to having a legally-defined legally-defined pornography standard than it was before police raided the American Fork and Lehi Movie Buffs stores in October of 1996. The first trial ended after a single juror felt it was inappropriate for him to lay down that kind of standard for the community as a whole. The second ended in a verdict of not guilty for Larry Warren Peterman, the former Movie Buffs manager who rented cable-edited versions of X-rated videos in many Movie Buffs outlets, including those in north Utah County. Peterman was found innocent, not because the jury didn't think the videos were obscene, but because the cities in question gave Peterman a permit to do business even after he had told them he would be renting videos with adult content hard-core X-rated films that had been edited to meet cable television standards. Lehi city officials now claim they didn't know what that meant. Nevertheless, Never-theless, their approval of a business license for Movie Buffs was significant enough that the jury didn't think it could convict Peterman of intentional wrongdoing. What remains unanswered is the critical question: Where do we draw the legal line when it comes to pornography pornog-raphy and obscenity? One Supreme Court justice summed up the problem succinctly when he said of obscenity: "I can't define it, but I know it when I see it." Well, the fact is we are seeing more of it each day, whether we want to or not. One thing the second Movie Buffs trial has taught us is that there is more sexually-oriented material available avail-able in Utah County today than there was in 1996 in the form of adult magazines, sexually explicit videos for rent and pay-per-view movies in some local hotels, and on-line pornography Reader's Forum feep lhe smut out Editor- As a parent of seven precious children, chil-dren, I write to express my thanks to Utah County for putting a STOP to the selling of "back room smut porno" in American Fork. I never wanted the store to go out of business and be shut down. I did want the back room trash smut to not be sold in my town. I ask that Suncoast Video voluntarily "pull from their shelves" the Playboy smut that they sell (in the University Mall). I thank and applaud Sunrise Video in American Fork for being willing to "take the heat" for editing unwelcome scenes from Titanic or any other movie. If people want smut, they can obtain it in secret by mail order or cable subscription. Don't put it in front of my children with a seductive, alluring video jacket cover. I appreciate and am proud of the reputation of Utah County for being "goody goodies" in our morality! It is my hope and prayer that American Fork will continue to not tolerate major smut in this town. I call for a boycott of all video rental stores who rent "back room adults only" type of There are easy ways to make a great prom date It's prom season around the valley this month, and preparing two boys for the big event has proven to be an interesting inter-esting opportunity, to say the least In the first place, this is the first formal for-mal dance for both of them. Second, we've only had to help daughters prepare pre-pare for this in the past. With a few days left to go, the jury is still out on which will prove to be more work. I know that our challenges aren't unique, though; as I've shared some of our struggles with the mothers of other prom-bound high schoolers, I've taken an informal survey of their experiences. Here's a few things I've learned: Utah teens feel genuine pressure to cook up some elaborate way of asking for any dance date. Just calling up and mak- ing a request simply won't do. I have told four successive children now that this is silly and they needn't participate, but it doesn't do any good. I have to admit, though, it was still American Fork Citizen (ISSN No. 1521-6845) (U.S.P.S. No. 018-680) A nwfflbor of " ijf national Ncwamm .. v J . ASSOCIATION . - over the Internet. We have also seen that we cannot rely on the courts to stem the tide of pornography and obscenity. There are too many variables to get a clear ruling rul-ing in a courtroom setting of what is and what isn't obscene. The Movie Buffs trial also tells us that we can have a powerful effect on our communities by our behavior. We can make a difference and keep our community free of salacious material. We can do that by refusing to patronize patron-ize businesses that market this material. mater-ial. While it is true that our city officials offi-cials should work diligently to keep sexually-explicit material out of local businesses, there is only so much cities can do. The absence of clearly defined limits makes this even more difficult for local governments. , As individuals, however, we can make a difference. If we give our financial support to these businesses, they will thrive. If we don't, they will go somewhere else. After all, who sets the community standard if not the members of the community? We do that most effectively effective-ly with our pocketbooks and through our vocal complaints to store managers who stock questionable material. The war against obscenity will be won or lost in our own homes and businesses not in protracted legal battles where unrelated issues can sidetrack clear-cut decision making. Long before Movie Buffs won in the court of law, they lost in the court of public opinion, when they saw their customer base fade away largely because of the kind of material they stocked in their stores. That was a victory for the Utah County community as a whole, and it should serve as a model for the ongoing ongo-ing struggle to keep obscene material out of our towns and cities. We fight this battle every day - and a concerted, continuing effort by the community is the only way to win the war against pornography. smut:' " I would lit J nf ri, " - like the great anti-Chnst m to know that I am not Tom Barberri imposing my standards upon him or others. I just think I have the right to have my children not be exposed or tempted by sexual trash. If it isn't around to be looked at, I have a greater chance of keeping my children from it. The second jury just found Larry Peterman (owner of Movie Buffs) innocent inno-cent of peddling porn. I still say it was porn, but must point out that he was found not guilty by a jury twice. I am sorry he lost his business and that the trial destroyed his marriage. Yet in all fairness, did he really expect nothing but "good" to come from the selling of smut? What did he think would happen when he attempted attempt-ed to alter mine and others standards into "tolerating" and "accepting" his special brand of filth? I wish him the best. I hope he can find employment and rebuild his life. I forgive him. It is my hope that his example will repulse all other video rental shops from locating in American Fork to smell smut. , Harold Smith; V American Fork sort of fun to be in on the planning this time, and they were able to come up with something that was cute and didn't cost a slice of the reserves at Fort Knox. The . girls took the cue and answered in an equally creative but low-budget way. I guess I can live with that It's next to impossible for girls to find a decent dress in this area, let alone one they actually want to wear. One of our son's dates confided her despair after several fruitless shopping trips, complaining com-plaining that the dresses were either too skimpy, too ugly, or both. Other mothers have reported needing to make alterations on dresses they did find; adding sleeves and raising necklines neck-lines were the most common modifications. modifica-tions. You would think that store managers man-agers here would get a due, but they say they can only get in what can be ordered. Somewhere out there, there must be one or more enterprising women who Published weekly by iMsphons Numbers m AdwlWnfl 4 OrcUafcn..... 758-7869 'IfLfc Hm ...756-5273 TIT lJTYT ' " WNf t!Uait fCKVS " M9Eor aHrtttfc firr ) AFCfyEdto ...lataCMrtmn HjffrOlL UntfcikEdlor ..yen !f!"jU. Periodicals Forties Paid - at American Fork, Utah . We have more We had a fascinating visit with our daughter's in-laws, the McMurrays, who decided it was time to come and visit their first grandson. It was an extended visit because the McMurrays live in Nottingham, England, Eng-land, find don't come into our part of the world very often. This is, in fact, their first visit since Kristy and Ian were married. They were here about two weeks. Included in their visit was the blessing of little Scott. They spent much of their time touring including a several-day stay at a St. George condominium, which gave them a chance to see some of Utah's beautiful national parks, Las Vegas, and even an occasional ghost town. Sunday evenings we invited them to our house, where, we chatted and played games. In the course of their visits, we learned some fascinating things. One night while I was busy getting the office computers into shape, Sharon played a game of Monopoly with our British friends that she still talks about. Apparently, the rules are mostly the same, but not exactly. In fact, they were just enough different differ-ent to keep her off balance and out of the game. Sharon also learned a lot about Ian and his relationship with his older brother, broth-er, David, who came over for the first time. They were quite competitive, as brothers usually tend to be. We played games of Scum, and some parlor games that the McMurrays taught us the last time they visited. It was all very pleasant. From here to the Republic of My wife and I recently returned from a week in Taiwan or the Republic of China (ROC), courtesy of their Government Govern-ment Information Office (GIO). (They like acronyms as much as we do.) We met personally with several government officials, offi-cials, scholars, and business leaders, who taught us about their highly successful democracy and free-market economy. All of these men had spent many years in the United States and many held Ph.D.'s from prestigious U.S. universities. And why would they do this? Probably the shortest answer is: "PRC" or the Peoples' Peo-ples' Republic of China, home to 12 billion people, approximately .one-, fourth,pf the Worlds population, Agat WWciinist - eijiog is concerted there is one China" d , 22miljiaciart part of maticaUy cut Taiwan off from virtually all other countries. Therefore to maintain their de facto independence and to keep from being absorbed into the amoeba of China, Taiwan needs friends in the rest of the free world lots of them! The U.S. position, officially and necessarily, neces-sarily, recognizes the PRC, but through an act of Congress (Taiwan Relations Act) seeks to maintain the economic, military, mil-itary, political and peaceful status quo. When the only geographic buffer is a thin ribbon of water about 70 miles wide, the ROC could not defend itself very long (without U.S. intervention) against the . most populated nation on earth. However, both sides, it seems, want a united China, but the people of Taiwan, having experienced democratic free1 doms, want a united democratic China. An individual example is Mr. W. P. Chuang, Assistant General Manager in the Public Affairs Department of China Steel. Mr. Chuang fled the communist takeover of mainland China with thousands thou-sands of other nationalists in 1949. He later came to the US., as part of a government gov-ernment selected team, to learn how .to could launch a store or home business providing formalwear for Utah's modesty-conscious teens. There's a genuine business niche just waiting to be filled. We've had the difficult experience of trying to find something suitable for a teenage girl, but now I'm even having trouble finding something for my seven-year-old that doesn't look like it's trying to imitate an adult fashion in a smaller size. Help, anyone? The boys are not removed entirely from the girls' struggles over dresses either. One young man we know who is now serving a mission advised his sister before he left to make sure her choices did not leave her date guessing where he could put his hand without touching skin or seeing things he didnt want to see when they were dancing. It was very sound advice, and something some-thing we hadn't considered in our household house-hold until now, when we are dealing with the opposite side of the equation. I hope CtattHWAdvwtelng MpkyAAertWng .. . . .Tueadiy, noon ..Monday, 5 p.m. . .Monky, 2 fun .Jfen&x2pjn. . JUtonCy S pjn. .tferttftlOim. JAmdsy, 10 un. spom,.... CmnurtfyCaltrrfv . LMm to Ve EJSor . . in common than we think On their last trip, we treated them to dinner at a Murray restaurant called the Wagon Master. On the outside, the restaurant looks like a big barn. On the inside, it looks like you are outside again. Lights twinkle in the black ceiling like stars in the night sky, and every table is placfed inside a covered wagon booth. Gunslingers and law men prowl the premises, visiting with the customers and punctuating the evening with gunfire gun-fire as the good guys and bad guys line up for an old fashioned shoot out every half hour or so. The first time we took them there, we didn't know what to expect. Afterwards, we thought maybe the evening had been a little too much. But the McMurrays wanted to treat us to the experience again, mainly so David could see it It was a lot of fun. Hollywood has created cre-ated a worldwide fascination with American Amer-ican cowboys and Indians. The Sunday night before they returned to Nottingham, we gathered at our home. Earlier, Derek had asked us about our feelings about civic responsi make steel. Among other places, they spent a considerable con-siderable amount of time at the US Steel Plant in Orem, Utah. In fact, since my own father worked some 30 years as a security guard at the Orem plant, much of China Steel looked very familiar the administration building, the dispensary, dispen-sary, the rolling mill, etfiumumi ,qmit-t. , Mr. Chuang, literally, saw China Steel rise from the dust to become what is now aiprivite$ owned and. still profitable steel plant. Ironically, he told us that they originally went to the US. to learn how to make steel, but some 20 years later, U.S. steelmakers came to them to see how they had managed to stay profitable Nevertheless, to return to my point, when Mr. Chuang left mainland China, he left much of his family there. Like millions mil-lions of others in Taiwan, he has since been back to visit. However, they can't juet jump on a boat and go 72 miles across the strait, they can only visit' through the free port of Hong Kong. Though not nearly so many, fortunately Beijing has allowed some mainlanders to also visit family in Taiwan. Millions of family ties and tradition bind both peoples peo-ples together, hence the continued hope for one united China. Space here will only allow a few examples, but here are some other things I observed in Taiwan: The Republic of China is a new and enthusiastic democracy. What we wouldn't would-n't give, for example, to have 75 percent voter turnout! Unfortunately, as our democratic republic has "matured" beyond its Christian constitutional roots, too many have lapsed into a coma of per my sons' dates were able to find something some-thing that meets those standards. A lot of students are scared away from dance dates-by what can become prohibitively high expenses. This is a shame, because ifs possible to have a lot of fun, even the favored all-day dates, without spending a fortune. '' Here's a hint, gang: your dates will be a lot more impressed by your manners and kindness towards them than they will be by how much money you spend. If you want to make a lasting impression, try being considerate and genuinely interested in them. v v Many budjtaccadoua teens have addressed this problem hy getting family members involved in activities and meal preparation. Some of our children's fondest fond-est dating memories were created on such occasions, and they have the added We Wfrtoortw tetters to the editor. AH letters must include the author's nm (pnYrtad AND signed) and a te tor drity, punctuation, terts and IcO. Lc!r are welcome on ary tcplo. ' ' ByKas. to. Box 7, American Fork, UT 84CC3 bility for a school assignment. He had td interview several people about the suW ject for a report We encouraged him td asK tne iviaviurrays, to get a uiwuen view of the subject. . The responses were fascinating. Foil the most part, the McMurrays expressed! the same concerns Sharon and I had! talked about how important it was to! cast an informed vote, to pay our taxes and to uphold our elected officials and the laws of the land. But then the questions veered into the area of royalty. "Here we go," warned Ian in a stage whisper. "Well, I don't know about the rest ofl you, but rm a royalist, said Kathleen, expressing her support ot the Queen. "Well, Fm Scottish, so you know how I feel about that," Andy said. "She may be your queen, but she s not mine. And on it went. In the end, we learned a lot about our visitors, about ourselves, and about the bond that has been forged in the fire of common interests the well-being of our children and our grandchildren. It seems remarkable sometimes that people peo-ple from such disparate circumstances can share so many common interests. Kathleen shed a tear as she said goodbye, good-bye, as did we. It's uncertain when well get together again, since neither family can afford to travel across the Atlantic Ocean very often. But we know well see' each other again. Ian, Kristy and Scott make that a certainty. China sonal license, i.e., let others volunteer, let others do the government and military dirty work so 1 can be free to pursue per sonal wealth, pleasure and leisure. In Taiwan, all national issues are local and personal; it is their country and the peo ple govern. Taiwan has preserved many, if not most, Of the mainland's priceless treasures. trea-sures. The National Palace Museum houses artifacts from the dynasties of many Chinese Emperors. Some items date back to 4,000 B.C.! The entire exhibit exhib-it changes every three months and to see everything, one would have to visit the museum every quarter for over l&years. Toe Government Information OtfBce held a dinner for us with government, media and university dignitaries. Because they knew we were LDS, they also surprised us by graciously inviting two missionaries from the local mission office. We were so pleased to visit with them and the ROC officials were very impressed with how these Elders had mastered the very difficult Chinese language lan-guage in such a short time. At every stop we were given gifts; we returned the favor with, among other things, the Book of Mormon and the Proclamation on the Family (in Mandarin Man-darin Chinese, of course) and music from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. We also visited the LDS Temple in Taipei and attended church in a local ward. (Yes, they do write in Chinese from top to bottom on the blackboard.) Elder Wong (from Logan, Utah) translated for us, with the kind assistance of Elder Barton Bar-ton (from American Fork). Small LDS world that it is, I learned that Elder Barton Bar-ton had dated my niece. J j In our short visit to Taiwan, we learned that people are much the same everywhere and we gained a greater appreciation and love for these kind, gracious gra-cious and ambitious people ... more next time. J ' ' ' , J benefit of building family bonds as welj. It's pretty hard to get a boy measured mea-sured for a tux when he's an athlete andor has an after- school job. Maybe someone could consider staying open later one night a week during busy seasons sea-sons like this one. i I finally got mine in when Mothfer nature shortened their practices week, but I knew we weren't the Ones with the nrnhlam hoMiuafka i I ."" w,iwmbv ' was jam-packed the entire time we wefe inere witn you guessed it other ath- Despite the wait, it was really fun mto au- mm see now tuxes transformed these American boys. Clothes may not the man, but thev sure can rive a suggestion. I cant imncrmn those not inspiring the young men vrbo e toem w uve up to tne beet tLi u them. . , ,, There are those wh'-v 8ri yS' is wasted on the younj but a wU-. wU-. planned nrom date can rmmrn exception to the rule. I wfch s3 cfyr.Ja nub ana gionous evening. i CyTax 753-K74 rrrM-v (1 71 POOE b L-rf -it- -- t. |