What are we to make of the fact that you can have unlimited access to Internet porn at some public libraries?
By Jonah Goldberg
The Miami Herald
Of course you’ve heard some version of this tale before. Winston Churchill says to a woman at a party, “Madam, would you sleep with me for five million pounds?”
The woman stammers: “My goodness, Mr. Churchill. Well, yes, I suppose …”
Churchill interrupts: “Would you sleep with me for five pounds?”
The woman responds immediately: “What? Of course not! What kind of woman do you think I am?!”
To which the British bulldog replied: “Madam, we’ve already established that. Now we are haggling about the price.”
The story comes to mind upon hearing the news that the New York Public Library has gotten into the porn business. “With adults, anything that you can get on the Internet, you can legally get on a computer in the library,” explained an official. “It’s difficult, but we err on the side of free and open access.”
What does this have to do with the Churchill story? Well, imagine you went to your local library in, say, 1989 — or some other year before Al Gore invented the Internet.
Then imagine going up to the librarian and asking him, “Do you carry Hustler?”
The shocked librarian answers, “No.”
“Back issues of Swank? High Society? Penthouse?”
“No, no and no,” quoth the librarian.
“OK, OK. I get it. Do you have movies?”
Librarian answers: “Yes, of course.”
“Great!” you reply. “I’d like to sign out Debby Does Dallas.’“
“What? No!”
“How about the VHS of On Golden Blonde?”
Finally, the librarian explodes: “Sir, we do not carry any pornography. What do you think we do here?”
Well, the answer to that question is suddenly in doubt. Because up until very, very recently, the idea that public libraries should — nay, must! — peddle unfettered access to hardcore porn would have baffled almost everyone.
I’m hardly an anti-porn crusader, but the list of reasons why libraries didn’t — and shouldn’t — carry porn is vast. The two most obvious and mutually reinforcing reasons are moralistic and budgetary: A) “It’s wrong,” and B) “We have very limited resources and we must choose what we think is worthwhile and what has no redeeming value.”
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Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/05/01/2194519/a-thorny-porny-issue-for-libraries.html#ixzz1LEWnroFI
