PERSPECTIVE ON VIOLENCE IN FILMS : An Open Letter to Bob Dole : Indicting the industry for the excesses of a few is like indicting all public servants for the few who break the public trust.

As well you know, I am one of your friends and admirers and have been for many years. With that affection still intact, I read your speech wherein you find American movies to be depraved and otherwise unsuitable.

First, as a parent and citizen, I share your belief that some American movies are pretty awful. I wish these movies had never been made or exhibited. A few do step over that smudged line where the acceptable becomes unacceptable.

But then consider statements made by some public officials and assorted “divinely inspired” self-anointed custodians of morality. Some of what they say steps over the line. But they have a right to say whatever they choose, however meretricious or hypocritical.

The beauty of this land is that it is fortified by free speech. Not necessarily courteous speech or even rational speech. Some speech in both the political and private sectors is squalid, manipulative, coiled in trickery. No matter, this land is blessed with freedom, blessed with rights: the right to choose, the right to oppose, the right to ignore, the right not to watch or listen, the right to say “go soak your head.” And, I might add, a right and duty to be responsible for your actions.

I feel as strongly about freedom as you do, Bob. Like you, I served my country. Like you, I fought for my country. Like you, I almost died for my country. And like you, if my country needed me, I would do it again. Gladly.

Second, and thankfully, an increasing number of films are inhabited by the civic virtues you and I care about; what William Faulkner called the old verities: love and honor, duty and fidelity, pity and pride, courage and compassion. I’m proud of that. Of course, when more than 400 films are produced annually, some are bound to be mavericks, slouching outside the assumed normalities, disconnected from the daily moral compass that guides the great majority of decent Americans. These are the same kind of folks who live and work in the movie community, who go to church, do good works in their neighborhood, who try to instill in their children values that will shield them from the surly intrusions of the street, just like in Russell, Kan.

But you are doing something that Edmund Burke cautioned all wise public men not to do, that is, to indict an entire society. You scoop up all movies and drop them into a toxic waste dump. Should we exile from public approval all presidents because Richard Nixon committed the most heinous crime possible, dishonoring the people he had sworn to serve, thereby soiling the presidency and the Constitution? Should we condemn all White House assistants because some of Nixon’s top aides went to jail? Should we lay a stained shroud over all in Congress because some members have proved to be venal?

Why, then, do you wrap all movies in the same defiled package when you are more lenient with deceitful public officials? More and more movies are in the marketplace that people age 8 to 80 are watching and enjoying. More and more of the creative community is hard at work trying to tell stories that can attract a broader audience.

I know you admitted you didn’t see the movies you criticized, but please watch some of the current popular films, which are delighting family audiences, like “Casper” and “A Little Princess.” And yes, watch “Rob Roy” and “Braveheart,” which contain violence (violence abounded in the 14th Century) but deal with man’s passionate cry to be free and a willingness to die for that freedom, just the way you and I and millions like us put our own lives in peril to defend and sustain our country.

You say you’re not supporting censorship. I believe you. Therefore, shouldn’t you advocate that each American exercise his or her individual responsibility for their choices? Do we want some government agency to be our national nanny? Let’s urge parents to keep their children away from movies they judge to be blighted. We have a rating system that informs parents which films deserve parental scrutiny. It offers advance cautionary warnings to parents. We alert parents not to let their children see an R-rated movie that parents don’t approve. No other industry has taken on such an obligation to the parents of this country, and no other industry turns away revenues in order to redeem its pledge to parents.

Meanwhile, what is needed in this free and loving land is leadership to confront head-on the aching problems that aren’t so easily fixable with speeches, but cry out for a real crusade: abject poverty, too many babies having babies, too much fear, too much drugs, too many guns, a shaky economy, lack of discipline in too many schools, abandonment of responsibility by too many parents and armed nuclear weapons in faraway places. A lot of Americans (in the movie community and elsewhere) would enlist in that crusade.

With respect and affection, I am sincerely yours--Jack Valenti.