Return of the smut
Boulder, Colo., like Lawrence, has an indecent materials" ordinance. We can hear it now, just like we heard it last spring in this town, the furor which goes along with any attempt to get a "smut" ordinance passed.
No doubt the proposal was pushed by a few old Victorian bags who are offended at the sight of any portion of nude human anatomy and a few city council members who think they are doing the community a service.
And no doubt there was an explosion on the CU campus of both faculty and students protesting the ordinance, as there was here, saying that such a law can be used to curb the sale of works which are of genuine literary and social value, depending upon who is doing the interpreting. Probably they were given the usual story that such a misinterpretation was not possible, that the ordinance was adopted to ban hard-core pornography, and no doubt were looked upon by the champions of public decency as pro-smut radicals.
WELL, IT HAS finally happened. In Boulder last week, the worst fears of those protesting smut ordinances were realized. We quote from an editorial in the Colorado Daily:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."
"The quotation above is the first amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America. It was ratified and became the supreme law of the land on Dec. 15, 1791. It was made applicable to the states by the passage of the 14th amendment on July 28, 1868.
"It was ignored, violated, abridged, negated and laughed at in Boulder, Colorado on the eighth day of November in the year of our intolerance nineteen hundred and sixty six."
THE EDITORIAL in the Daily referred to an obscenity charge leveled at a Boulder bookstore owner, on the grounds of the city's smut ordinance, brought about on a complaint that
he was selling lapel buttons which read. "F" "ck Censorship." This is exactly what the button reads, asterisk and all.
The CU editorial editor points out that the obsessive law only permits exceptions to the protection afforded by the first amendment in extreme cases, those being materials which appeal to lewd, lascivious and puritan interests, or, in the case of the Lawrence ordinance, anything which "exploits, is devoted to, or principally made up descriptions of illicit sex or sexual immorality or which is obscene . . ."
It is quite ironic that the person who filed the complaint against the Boulder bookstore owner (and who, incidentally, chose not to leave his name and insists on hiding behind anonymity) picked a "F*ck Censorship" button on which to key his gripe. We are in complete agreement with the Daily, which goes on to say that "F*ck Censorship" is clearly a social protest by those who believe in the first amendment, directed at those forces of censorship which seek to destroy our freedom and who say, in effect, "F*ck the Constitution."
THE PHRASE, says the Daily, "is simply one of the most effective phrases yet devised to point out the futility, asininity and muddled-headedness of censorship in general." It is obvious that the asterisk is necessary to convey the full meaning of the phrase, and that absolutely no obscenity is intended.
So, in view of the recent events in Boulder and their possible applications on the home front, we should like to do two things:
First, we congratulate the CU students who have rallied to the support of the bookstore owner in protest of the summons by selling their own label stickers on campus and using the proceeds for a defense fund in the name of the owner.
And secondly, we extend a very large warning to ye inhabitants of this Bible Belt: IT CAN HAPPEN HERE, AND IT CAN HAPPEN TO YOU! (And, frankly, we're a little surprised it hasn't.)
Jack Harrington
The Daily Kansan, student newspaper at The University of Kansas, is represented by National Advertising Service, 18 East 50 St. New York, N.Y. 10622 postage paid at Lawrences, Kan., every afternoon during the University year except Sundays and Sundays. University holidays and examination periods. Accommodations, goods, services and employment advertised in the University Daily Kansan are offered to all students without regard to color, creed or religion.
The opinions expressed in the editorial column are those of the students whose names are signed to them. Guest editorial views are not necessarily the editor's. Any opinions expressed in the Daily Kansan are not necessarily those of The Universal y of Kansas Administration or the State Board of Regents
Assistant Managing Editors Judy Faust, Joan McCabe,
Barbara Phillus, Steve Russell
BAD FOR FEES
FRESNO, Calif. — (UPI)— The pollen from the California Buckeye tree can cause deformities to occur in young baccs.
The California Division of Forestry reports the bee larvae eat honey made from the pollen and the young bee is often born with missing legs, wings or other deformities.
Tuesday, November 15, 1866
Daily Kansan
2
DECLARATION!
Poor Bill! Some voters didn't like school unification. They took it out on him. Some voters didn't like higher taxes. They took it out on him. It would seem the Nazi Germans weren't the only people who needed a scape-goat.
A record number of voters went to the polls last week, and everyone is the better for it. At least, almost everyone is.
If nothing else, this election has opened up a field day for 1968. No Republican can lay undisputed claim to the gubernatorial nomination. Rumors always abound that a Senate seat from Kansas may also be up for grabs. With two of the juiciest plums on the Kansas political tree being possibly available to the two Republicans in the state who can reach the highest, the primary in August, 1968, promises to be among the liveliest ever fought.
TO MAKE MATTERS WORSE, the voters didn't even get the "culprit." If they had really wanted to get the people responsible for school unification and high taxes, they should have vented their anger on the members of the state legislature who passed, with bi-partisan support, the two programs which backfired in Bill Avery's face. Two years ago these things were so far under way that Bill Avery wouldn't have dared stop them if he had wanted to. The voters chose, however, to keep the legislature substantially the way it was and instead change governors.
The psychologists tell us that it is good for a man to release his pent-up frustrations. This year, to a greater extent than ever before, Kansas voters did this. They showed their fear of and opposition to the taxes made necessary by the programs they themselves had demanded. And they took it out on Bill Avery.
The Kansas game will be strictly minor league, however, compared to the "Great Race" among national Republicans in 1968. The whole nation will be watching as the G.O.P. tries again to gain the Presidency.
WHILE THE RIGHT-WING of the Republican Party has controlled the party since just before the 1964 convention, it has been suffering a "leadership vacuum" since Goldwater's defeat. Suddenly, however, instead of a vacuum, the Republican right has lots of leaders. It may have too many leaders. Important victories by Ronald Reagan in California and John Tower in Texas may pave the way for a leadership battle within this faction.
Meanwhile, over in left field important victories were scored by the Romney forces and by Charles Percy in Illinois-even Nelson Rockereller managed to keep his political head above water. A leadership struggle seems inevitable here, too.
These factional struggles will, however, only preface the fireworks we'll see when the victors in each of the factions meet head-on at the Republican National Convention. Amid much sound and fury the party will choose its David to do battle with the enemy.
And when the shouting is stilled, the fireworks are spent, and the smoke begins to clear away, somewhere out in center field one will hear the unmistakable voice and discern the unmistakable image of Tricky Dicky.
— Pyrrhus and Cineus
FEIFFER