Mindless Mayhem #9 It's about 4:10 A.M. on Monday June 22 1991. I no longer sleep, so in my quest to find something to do I bring you these two tidbits: "As American As Apple Pie" and "The F.A.C.T. About Censorship" They are flyers I picked up on a recent trip to Chicago. ____________________________________________________________ "AS AMERICAN AS APPLE PIE" The right of free speech, the constitutional guarantees, the principles that this country was founded upon concentrated in the expression "Censorship is Un-American" - these have been articles of faith in the censorship movement. Who is the enemy? The religious zealots, government bureaucrats, fascist minded legislators - who's goals and methods are seen as gross violations of what this country should be. Or is it? Are the inheritors of "we the people" those who defy the Helms, the Wildmans and Bushes - or are the thought police merely doing what is necessary to preserve and defend the traditions or the nation, Americas true standard bearers. This isn't academic. If we reach for the constitution as a weapon to ward off the censors, what we pick up may not be a shield, but a snake. If we see no farther than a return to "normalcy", of life without the interference of the PMRC, what then of those for whom "normalcy" has always been a living hell. When a chance video reveals the everyday viciousness of the police to people of color, when public housing residents have the choice of submit or be evicted in the name of the war on drugs, when a homeless person can't even ask for a dime on a subway without being hauled off to jail, can one really call the relative opportunity for the middle class to express themselves - "freedom"? Censorship is not just what gets the blue pencil - there is much that falls to even make it that far though America's cultural and intellectual meatgrinder. There is no need to 'ban' women artists when so few are shown. There is no need to 'enforce' a white ethos in children's books, when 95% are already devoid of any other race. Given the consequences should a teacher attempt to explain the experience of gay people in your average American classroom - why bother 'forbidding' it. It is only a consequence of the massive rebellions in the 60's that there exists some diversity in a few pockets here and there. Is it not ironic that the assault on those alternative voices that exist is being done in the name of freedom, of overthrowing the "tyranny" of "political correctness" and "multiculturalism". What is at stake is more than some men being denied their god given right to wack off to men's magazines, is bigger than just "me doing whatever the fuck I want" - it is, and has been a life and death question for all those considered 'outside' the mainstream of America. Is it any surprise that most of those being targeted today are voices for those sections of people who've always been on Americas hit list - people of color, defiant women, gays and lesbians, middle class youth who've gone over to the 'enemy' - has America ever been a place where this has not been the case? On July 4th, we will be subjected [TWB Note- we WERE subjected] to what promises to be an obscene orgy of self- congratulations over the successful slaughter of the Iraqi people. Awash in yellow ribbons, drenched in red, white and blue - in the name of celebrating the uniqueness of Americas freedoms, eyes will be averted from those unfortunate images of horror and degradation that define the real new world order. It nourishes a climate being molded where suppression of new reinforces perpetuation of stereotypes to enable a heavy hand to keep in place all those 'not with the program.' What better a time for a different voice to be heard, for the real questions of the day [TWB note- or ANY day] to be raised. "Censorship: As American As Apple Pie" - needs to be addressed through discussion, debate and by putting the ideas, views, and expressions deemed verboten on center stage. "Submit" will be the official message this July 4th, let us deliver a better one, of liberation - that we will not acquiesce, we will not be silenced, and it is definitely not us who will be made to go away. POLITICALLY CORRECT TERRORIST COMMITTEE ____________________________________________________________ THE F.A.C.T. ABOUT CENSORSHIP Donald Wildmon and his group, the American Family Association, have targeted Waldenbooks and K-Mart to remove magazines containing nudity. F.A.C.T.: By not naming any particular magazine, fashion, art and sports magazines are all under attack! F.A.C.T.: Donald Wildmon spends hundreds of thousands of dollars on "campaigns" to tell us what to read. F.A.C.T. urges these store NOT to turn over their selection of material to Donald Wildmon! F.A.C.T. (Fight Against Censorship Today) is a coalition of groups and individuals that believe free speech and free expression are under attack. We urge you to reprint this flyer and send in the coupon below. For further information contact: F.A.C.T., C/O GUILD BOOKS, 2456 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago, Illinois -- 312/525-3667. ------------------------------------------------------------ Send to: Mr. Joseph Antonini K-Mart, 311 West Big Beaver, Troy, MI. 48084 or call: 1-800-635-6278 Dear Mr. Antonini: I urge you to carry all the magazines and books you presently carry and ignore the vague American Family Association interstate attack on free speech. Don't give in! Signature: Address: ____________________________________________________________ If you would like, you can call us at Destiny Knights BBS at (708) 307-3768. The NUP is Fourth Dimension. If you say you saw this here you just might get access. If you would like to see text file groups become popular again, or at least join ours, call us or write either me (The Wizard of Black) or the sysop of Destiny Knights (Great One) at: David Nelson <----This is Important! If you don't use P.O. Box 95856 this name we won't get your mail! North Suburban, IL 60195 ____________________________________________________________ Mindless Mayhem is published on an irregular basis by people who really have nothing better to do. Please distribute this file freely, but do not change it unless you really think you need to! ____________________________________________________________ "Jerry, I sometimes believe that we're heading very fast for Armageddon right now." --Ronald Reagan to Falwell.