The September 28 Valley Advocate writes about how “Northampton’s understanding of its special local culture is headed for a test…”
Northampton has a mix that includes not only mainstream adult consumers of porn, but students–young people discovering their sexuality and experimenting with materials to help them enhance it. It has gays and lesbians, who have historically been eager to get their share of the libido boosters traditionally available to straight people. It has a general population in which even those not enthusiastic about skin shots are avid defenders of the First Amendment. It’s easy to see, then, how big-time porn marketers would figure Northampton for an easy mark…
The mafia and its business associates understand the First Amendment, and they know how to push liberals’ buttons. They’ve done it before in this area with dismaying success, recruiting liberal lawyers to help keep notorious Springfield mobster Al Bruno out of jail in the early ’90s, to mention one example…
It’s a far cry from D.H. Lawrence, from gentle line drawings of women making love with women, to a store front that sets a porn mogul with a history of mafia ties up in the middle of Northampton’s Rte. 5 business district. It would be an irony, and not a happy one, for the more elevated arguments in favor of porn to shield the underside of the industry as it would touch down in Northampton, possibly drawing profits to interests quite at odds with the character of this community.
The citing of the porn store being at odds with the well understood values of Northampton is a common theme in comments posted by this organization’s supporters. These people seem to forget an important fact: allowing people to express themselves freely sometimes means hearing or seeing things that are objectionable to you. Just because a business doesn’t fit with the character of Northampton doesn’t mean we can regulate it based on some vague criteria for what material “causes harm” to viewers.
Secondary effects are not vague. They have been well studied in city after city. That’s what merits regulation. I invite you to dig into this New York study (300 pages) about it:
http://nopornnorthampton.org/2006/10/02/new-york-city-documents-secondary-effects-of-adult-uses.aspx
As for our wider objections to porn, these fall in the realm of education, so people can make wise choices, not censorship.
Stands back from the kebyaord in amazement! Thanks!