A Parent's Concern That Fear Is Driving The City Council

Editors note: Here are the comments that Andrew Shelffo made before the City Council at its last meeting before it voted 6 to 3 for the proposed zoning concering adult book and video stores, etc. Andrew lives not far from me and 135 King Street in Northampton with his wife and two children. He is also the author of The Prospect Perspective Blog on Masslive.com.

The link to his blog is: http://www.masslive.com/northampton/prospect/weblog/

I come here tonight to speak about the proposed zoning ordinance regarding the size and location of adult businesses. I come here not as a pro-porn person or an anti-porn person, but as a husband and father who lives near the King St. location.

When I first heard about the store proposed for King Street, my immediate reaction was that I didn't want it to be there. I have two young children and I envisioned having to have uncomfortable conversations with them about what "that store" is all about. I didn't think that having the store there would be a good thing for parents who go by that location with their children; there are some things, after all, that parents should have the right to explain to their children on their own terms and not be forced by external circumstances.

However, as the debate has gone on and I've done some research on the subject and thought about the consequences involved in trying to regulate this material and the very real first amendment issues involved, I've found that my position has evolved. And as anyone who's a parent knows, that's a major part of parenting: the need to adjust your beliefs in the face of new challenges as you struggle to deal with the day-to-day stuff. In addition to that, thanks to the recent protests and the headlines in the newspapers, I've had initial conversations with my older son about what pornography is. And I've realized that having that conversation is important and represents an important opportunity for me to teach my children about some of the more uncomfortable things in the world.

The fact of the matter is that pornography of all stripes exists in our society and is readily available in Northampton. The proposed regulations will do nothing to change that. And the suggestion that the regulations will "protect" us and our children from pornography is fear-mongering at its worst. Pornography is a multi-billion dollar industry that has grown tremendously in recent years. If pornography is as harmful as some people would suggest, we would expect to see a resulting rise in sexual offenses and sexual deviance in people who've been exposed to pornography, but this has not happened. What has happened is that the media has become enamored of sensationalism and the most lurid and disgusting stories get the most attention. This, too, plays upon people's fears.

And that's what I see happening here. Fear has turned into panic and we're scrambling to try and come up with an ordinance that will protect us from something we don't need to be protected from. That, to me, is a bad way to make laws.