Amidst accusations of political posturing, I was interested to see how Greensboro City Council member Danny Thompson would state his case during last night’s debate on porn filters for central library computers. I was disappointed in Thompson, who was elected to provide conservative leadership on the council.
For starters, the reason why Thompson’s been out of pocket as the debate has raged over the last two weeks —— fellow council member Zack Matheny chastised him for being incommunicado ——- is he was on vacation in Yosemite National Park. I realize such a vacation is scheduled weeks in advance, but it seems like if Thompson were to raise a what is sure to be a thorny issue, he would do so when he would be in town in order to work through the issue with other public officials.
As a result, Thompson appeared unprepared during council debate. There was confusion over whether documented incidents of porn-watching were system-wide or confined to the downtown central library. Thompson wondered why system-wide incidents were not being provided; library director Sandy Neerman said she was instructed to provide only incidents at the central library, a statement that was backed by City Manager Rashad Young.
The other interesting encounter came between Thompson and library board member Steve Allen, who explained the process behind the board’s approval of a limited filter. Throughout the entire night Allen expressed the view that the bandwidth shapers the library was using to slow downloading of inappropriate sites were effective, and that the limited filter approved by the board was simply the “lesser of two evils.”
“Why is it evil to keep our children from accessing porn?” Thompson snapped back. Allen went on to explain the city’s laws and charters require that when council instructs them to do something, they have to do it. It was clear that Allen was using a figure of speech to explain the situation. Probably not the most appropriate figure of speech given the subject matter, but a figure of speech nonetheless.
I am not defending porn on public computers. I would also agree with a speaker from the floor who said if people really believe there are only 18 cases of porn-watching in the library, then they’re “sadly mistaken.” But like a prosecutor during a trial, the burden was on Thompson to prove that this is a problem that requires council intervention. He simply didn’t make the case, at least in this citizen’s mind.