By LEE N. HOWELL
Politically Speaking

The recent increase in the popularity of the Internet raises serious questions about many of the traditional values we hold dear in this country and on which our way of life is based.

As a child of the technological age, I grew up with television and I have been fortunate enough to watch as the computer moved from an oversized box of wires and tubes used exclusively by big business, academia, and the government to the lightweight laptop with a chip inside which has become the stock in trade for many people on the go.

So, I have been aware of the explosion in knowledge which has indirectly caused an explosion in so many other areas.

And, I have watched as our society seemed to drift further and further away from the traditional buoys to which it had long been anchored.

Like many who were trained as journalists, though, I have been an observer and a commentator on the trends which I have seen.

However, since my wife and I have been blessed to now have two pre-schoolers living in our home, I have become more concerned with some of the things which formerly would not have bothered me.

For years, my bride and I have differed somewhat on just how much free speech our society can stand.

Like all of us who were trained as journalists, I have always believed that the First Amendment to the U. S. Constitution means exactly what it says:

“Congress shall make no law, abridging the freedom of speech or of the press....”

I still believe that, but I find it a little more difficult not to support putting some restrictions on that freedom to say whatever one pleases when the rapid expansion in the communications industry means that those freely spoken words — sometimes vulgarities and sometimes pornographic — are readily available at the twist of a dial controlling the direction of a satellite dish or with a few clicks on a computer's keyboard.

And, because I realize that everything which happens effects everything else which happens afterwards, I also know that the blame for many of the less-than-desirable changes which we have witnessed in our society over the last three decades can be laid squarely at the feet of those of us who participated in that revolution in human rights and the almost simultaneous protest against the establishment which flowed from my generation's opposition to the war we did not start in Vietnam.

Today, many people — some who opposed the changes wrought by the reforms enacted in the 1960s and some who supported them in the streets — are looking for ways to return to “traditional values” because we all realize that some of those changes led to things which were never contemplated or desired.

For instance, our society's rush toward freedom (which some would define as licentiousness) has led directly to the flood of pornography which seems to be all around us — even via the Internet (which is a great tool of knowledge) — in our living rooms.

Now, when I was in college, I read some publications which were the forerunners of today's reveal-all magazines — and, yes, I looked at the pictures!

But, the glossy magazines with their pseudo-intellectual philosophy I read were far, far tamer than the graphic smut which is now available at the corner service station.

So, I am in a quandary.

And, like so many other fair-minded individuals in society, I am wondering how far we go in the limiting of our traditional freedom of speech in order to protect our children from this garbage?

For, I know as well as I know my name, that if we as a society can not agree on how to most responsibly exercise our freedom — in this and other areas — then someday the leaders of our government may feel forced to impose severe restrictions on those who will not police themselves.

[Lee N. Howell is an award-winning writer who has been observing politics and society in the Southern Crescent, the state, and nation for more than a quarter of a century.]

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