Meese Report on Pornography

There is a tenet in American law that indicates that even though some people may use a product irresponsibly, the vast majority who can use that product with intelligent restraint are not to be denied it.

Thus, though some people regularly have car accidents, the automobile is not to be removed from the market. Though some people are alcoholics, those who can use alcohol responsibly are not to be denied its pleasures.

The vast, vast majority of Americans are not reduced to slavering idiots obsessed with sex when they read pornography. They should not be denied its pleasures.

Speaking of alcohol, the Commission on Pornography would have found a more demonstrable connection between it and violent sex crimes if it had investigated in that direction instead of trying to prove preconceived notions about pornography. Would the commission then have sent out intimidating letters to all liquor merchants as it did to the 7-Eleven markets for carrying so-called “adult” magazines?

MIKE VARADY

Los Angeles