(written after someone advocated ignoring sex-and-violence movies)

1. Ignore cancer It'll go away. (After it kills you.)
2. Ignore VD It may blind or cripple you, but you don't want a lot of publicity about it. That will only make it worse.
3. Ignore your child when he wants to eat nothing but candy. Maybe he'll get all he wants and stop eating it. (Until he gets hungry again.)

So let them go ahead and show those filthy movies. Call them "art." Say in the ads that they aren't "dirty." But I wonder how many men who are defending that sort of thing would want their wives or sweethearts or daughters or mothers to have to walk alone down a dark street near the theater just after one of those shows lets out.

Note: Anyone who is inclined to think of pornography as "just an innocent diversion" should read THE CASE AGAINST PORNOGRAPHY by Donald WiIdmon, (Victor Books) and/or PORNOGRAPHY'S VICTIMS (Pere Marquette Press).

Suppose some huge monster were at large in America, preying on women and children. No doubt there would be some who would argue that it should be permitted to live, if it were their pet. But the majority of people know better.

Nearly 20 million pornographic magazines are sold each month, reaching at least 50 million readers. 70% of these magazines are read by minors. Add the X-rated movies. Is pornography not a monster?

I heard a lady doctor tell of a family she treated. The oldest boy was 14 and had begun reading pornography as a young child. Ever since the age of 9 he had been raping his two younger brothers and his younger sister every week. None of these children will ever be able to live a normal life, thanks to the smut peddlers. (Parents, what are your children reading?)

But you may say, "Oh, people have a right to read what they want to. This is a free country." Yes, it is a free country to a certain extent. But your freedom to swing your arms stops where the end of my nose begins. No one should have freedom to harm others. Total freedom would be impossible, for those who exercise their so-called freedom to do wrong would enslave the rest.

What about the women and children who have been raped, maimed or murdered because some man fed his mind on filth? Were they not entitled to the freedom to live and be happy? Those who fantasize over pictures and descriptions of unnatural sex acts will some day find their bodies following their minds. Who knows who will be the next victim?

Pornography is not just a religious issue. It is not just a moral issue. It is a public safety issue and concerns all of us.

Today is election day. So is tomorrow and the next day. No, we don't always vote with ballots. Sometimes we vote with our dollars.

If we buy from any place of business that sells pornography, magazines or otherwise, we are voting for its continued sale. If we refuse to buy from such a place of business and explain why, we are casting a vote that counts against the sale of pornography. Taking our business elsewhere may involve driving a few extra blocks, but it may save some child from being corrupted by one of those magazines and becoming a criminal.

Many stores and filling stations sell Hustler, Penthouse, etc., because they think it increases their business. If it actually decreases, they will stop.

Note to Parents: Besides pornography and the ordinary run of TV, children are desensitized in other ways, even by school books. This item was omitted from one of my "letters to the editor." (Perhaps the letter was too long.) But I'm including it here.

A New Jersey resident thought the nursery rhymes in a certain book were too violent. I assume that it is similar to "Beastly Boys and Ghastly Girls," which contains this little gem:

Willie, with a thirst for gore
Nailed his sister to the door
Mother said, with humor quaint,
"Now Willie dear, don't scratch the paint!"