Friday, July 27, 2007

One Southern Indiana chairman flicks his Bic as ROCK proposes to burn the sinners.

Coincidentally, I noticed the “XXX – Garbage In, Garbage Out” billboard while traveling on I-65 yesterday, and having taken an interest in the topic almost 30 years ago while in high school, leaped to the conclusion that it was another wild salvo in the decades-long effort to shut down Clarksville’s Theatair-X -- now sans those legendary drive-in accoutrements, and merely the adult "superstore" crowding the outer fringe of the 10th wonder of the world, otherwise known as the Veterans Parkway chain store paradise, and on an everyday basis scaring away good Christians from supporting the war in Iraq by eating at the nearby Cheddar’s, where each appetizer purchased is another nail in bin Laden's coffin.

Turns out my hunch was mostly on the mark. In this news story, the Courier-Journal notes the most recent …

Anti-pornography effort launched in Clarksville; Billboard targets adult businesses, by Harold J. Adams

A Louisville-based anti-pornography group came to Clarksville yesterday to launch a campaign against pornography and sex-related businesses in the metro area.

Reclaim Our Culture Kentuckiana, or ROCK, held a news conference under a campaign billboard at Veterans Parkway and Interstate 65.


I’m so old that I remember Citizens for Decency through Law, a representative of which made a presentation to my senior civics class in 1978. We’d scheduled an employee of Theatair-X to appear and provide instructive counterpoint, but he cancelled at the last minute. Later that year, he was shot down while mowing his yard. My aversion to cutting grass dates to that time.

At any rate, being innocently asked to “reclaim” a culture so seldom in evidence, and so consistently elusive in a pluralistic society, requires a certain commitment to impartiality and a respect for a multiplicity of viewpoints.

Unfortunately, after visiting ROCK’s website and seeing photos of the group’s president (unsurprisingly, one of several New Albany residents involved) in the general vicinity of our nation’s failed and perfectly impeachable chief executive, and also beaming alongside the banner at the Colorado base camp of Focus on Family, you'll excuse me for guessing that we’ll be having none of it during the course of this latest fundamentalist crusade.

But I’m most curious about this section in reporter Adams’s article:

(ROCK President Bryan) Wickens was joined by Kerry Stemler, chairman of One Southern Indiana, the Clark and Floyd counties' chamber of commerce and economic development council.

"We need ... an economy that our children and grandchildren will want to be a part of," Stemler said.

Boy, is THAT a loaded statement.

Leaving aside the suitability of 1SI’s chairman publicly siding with a haywire religious lobby group, we’ve seen lately that the development council’s tortured definition of a suitably futuristic regional economy still includes a healthy fetish for exurban sprawl, a jolly endorsement of continuing dependence on foreign oil and a concurrently blatant disregard for mass transportation strategies; excuse me for being impertinent, but aren’t discussions over these matters closer to 1SI’s ideal (if not its daily) purpose than providing photo-op succor to native Christian extremists?

Back in 1978, one of our topic presentation pieces was extracted from the pages of Hustler (I’d really prefer you not ask how we obtained it), one featuring photos of disfigured and mutilated corpses and the title, “War – The Ultimate Obscenity.”

Three decades later, it's all I recall from that class. Contrary to popular opinion, I actually did learn something in high school.

3 comments:

John Manzo said...

I'm struggling with this.

First, I was initially taken aback by the new billboard. The giant XXX made me think that the porn shop was now advertising on both sides of the highway. I didn't realize it was an anti-XXX billboard until I read about it in the newspaper. In fairness, as my family can attest, I'm pretty clueless to advertising. I am consistently unaware of product placement in TV shows and movies and I don't have a clue as to what half of the commercials on TV are selling. So, the fact that I didn't 'get' the billboard may not mean anything.

Here is where I am vexed. Pornography is a problem for communities. It has been demonstrated to be highly addictive and highly damaging to a large number of people. Sexual addiction is running rampant. I would also agree with the fact that it does impede economic development. Whether or not I like the chains on Veteran's Parkway, or not, is not part of my dilemma. I'd rather have Olive Garden there than a porn shop. In New Albany we have a porn shop and a massage parlor and frankly their presence so close to downtown does not help growth in our downtown.

But, I greatly struggle with ROCK. Their closeness to Focus on the Family tends to make them more political than they are religious. Focus on the Family has tended to try to politically impact human wrongs more than human rights. They speak loudly against abortion and gay rights, but are silent on such issues as poverty, hunger, and world peace. Jesus only about the latter and any organization speaking for Christ that does not lead with dealing with poverty and hunger is missing a huge point. But I do digress.

ROCK seems closely connected to them. In reading action items--- prayer is good, but to call in against 'hate crime' legislation is not. In reading what I have about hate crime legislation, I do not find it against freedom of religion, but it prevents doing evil and blaming it on God.

So, my point may be this. I'm not a fan of ROCK but I also think that we need to address the sex industry in Southern Indiana. Perhaps ROCK has stepped in where many of us haven't.

G Coyle said...

I'm with you John, hate the porno people although acknowledge their freedom of speech rights (just not in my face please) like I hate the tattoo parlors, gambling joints, cheap bars, personal injury lawyers, flea markets, and other parasitic ventures that thrive amongst a segment of our down-wardly neighbors.

So how do we deal with pornographers? Where I'm from in New England they just zone adult entertainment into such narrow slots that it at least feels regulated and minimal or confined. I think the old notion of a red-light district is how it works in effect; in Boston it's been the "combat zone" for decades. Why can't we make 5 mile island an adult entertainment zone? Legalize gambling, drugs, firearms, pornography and cock-fighting and let those who need this for "entertainment" to "take the boat". Then we can say no to that anti-social stuff in our neighborhoods. It'll be like our own little Las Vegas in the river!

John Perry said...

Frankly, instead of their obsession about porn and what people do in their own homes, they really should worry about finding people jobs that actually pay a living wage of say 25 k and above. It's pretty laughable to hear all these employers posting their garbage on the Internet about having trouble finding reliable employees. Of course, I guess it would be hard when employers in Louisville want college graduates to work for 8 to 11 dollars an hour. It's out there people and its pretty laughable that they would worry about bad values when some of the worst values are from the religious right.