(This update courtesy of Agape Press.)
Activist Warns Small Towns: Be Proactive Against Porn-Related Firms
by Rusty Pugh
(AgapePress) – A pro-family activist says small towns in America need to take a more proactive stance when it comes to pornography-related businesses locating in their communities.
Randy Sharp is Director of Special Projects for the American Family Association. He is currently involved in a national boycott of Movie Gallery, the nation's third-largest video retailer, because of that company's policy of renting hard-core pornography. Sharp says Movie Gallery has a habit of locating in small towns because many smaller communities do not have pornography laws on the books.
Sharp says this happened recently in West Point, Mississippi. Movie Gallery offered porn there and blamed the city for allowing it because there were no ordinances to stop it.
“What we find is in small towns, the mayors and city council and the people and the churches say, 'We've never had this problem. It will never happen here,' ” Sharp says.
But Sharp states it does happen, and that small towns should take notice. He says when it come to fighting porn, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
“[T]he sad fact is that … as big cities are passing ordinances against these types of activities, then … companies like Movie Gallery or strip clubs are beginning to move into smaller markets,” he says.
According to Sharp, once a company peddling porn comes into a community, it is almost impossible to stop it.
by Fred Jackson and Jody Brown
(AgapePress) – Attorney General John Ashcroft says we live in a culture of violence — and it is going to take more than government to address it.
In a speech last week to a convention of newspaper editors in Washington, Ashcroft said the Justice Department is working hard on coming up with ways to better deal with violent crimes and the things such as drugs which cause it. But according to The Washington Times, he said others in society must also do their part. Ashcroft said the media could play a stronger role by showing some restraint in how it reports on violent incidents.
“It does not mean we abolish or abandon or otherwise impair the First Amendment of the Constitution,” Ashcroft told the American Society of Newspaper Editors. “It does mean to us, though, that we ought to think carefully about who we are as a culture and society and how we ought to respond.”
For example, Ashcroft suggested that newspapers could be more careful how they report school shooting incidents. He wondered out loud if the “enormous media coverage” given these events plays a part in the so-called “copycat” incidents which often follow the initial shooting. He called on the editors to accept what he termed an “era of responsibility.”
“The idea of responsibility … is a concept that needs to be elevated in our consciousness,” the Attorney General said. “Everyone has to take a role. We make the world a livable place not because the law tells us to, but because we choose to.”
