Re: Time and the Star: Closer than you think

[Peter Milbury <pmilbury@ericir.syr.edu>]

Thanks very much to Stephen Collins for posting the comprehensive analysis
of the Time magazine article on "cyberporn."

I have not thoroughly read the Time article, but I have already noticed
some people are reacting to the story based only on the information given
on the cover!

I can imagine how they will react to the actual cover story, since it is
so extreme and full of misinformation!  I am concerned that this will
become a Nineties "red scare," and we will librarians be persecuted as
purveyors by extremist groups in our communities.

The several paragraphs of the Time article that I have read did not ring
true, so I stopped.  The analysis that Stephen forwarded certainly did an
excellent job of analysis of the misinformation.

A young visitor to our home, an Internet user, pointed to what is probably
a major factor behind this situation:  Fear of something that is new and
unknown.  If it wasn't the issue of Internet porn, they would be up in
arms about security, privacy-- you can imagine....  This is the same
mentality that attacks certain corporations because they are afraid of
their logo.

Given the large amount volunteer of work that many, many people have given
to create and teach about this wonderful new way of communication, the
Internet, I hate to see it denigrated or possibly destroyed by a group of
biased, misinformed, fearful people.

I hope that LM_NET folks will help spread the word about all the wonderful
information and positive relationships that the Internet has made
available, will use every posssible chance to do so, and thereby help
overcome this current panic due to fear of the unknown.


 Peter Milbury, Librarian
Pleasant Valley High School, Chico, CA   "http://www.pvhs.chico.k12.ca.us/"
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