Success! Action Item: Library Magazines

I received a letter back from Ms. Mathewson from the Joyner-Green Valley library. I will scan it in soon. She mentioned it would be hard to monitor covers of books and magazines on an ongoing basis, but that my comments have prompted her to think more about the arrangement of the magazine section.She wrote, "I am working with our Children's Services Librarian to determine which magazines are most used by families with young children and it is our intent to move those magazines to the children's area where they will be more visible to individuals who use those most often."

I think this is a great small step! I know there is a magazine section already in the children's area so maybe they will add to that area family magazines as well. I'm excited to check out the library and see what changes are happening. I will write her a thank you letter in response.

My letter to Cox

Dear Mr. Rizley:

I am writing in response to some disturbing news in the world of the Internet. Recently, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) approved the .XXX domain for pornography distributors to use on the Internet. As a concerned citizen and mother I am writing to ask your company to not allow the .XXX domain to be used on your servers. Pornography tears apart marriages and families. It leads to violence such as sexual abuse and rape. I plead with you to take a stand against this filth.

 After reading through your policies I noticed this statemet:

“Cox reserves the right to refuse to post or to remove any information or materials from the Service, in whole or in part, that Cox deems, in its sole discretion, to be illegal, offensive, indecent, or otherwise objectionable.”

I would say that pornography on the internet is “illegal, offensive, indecent, or otherwise objectionable” and that you should do all you can to remove it from your service and servers. Did you know that there are federal laws that prohibit the distribution of hard core pornography? However, the Attorney General is not enforcing these laws. Unfortunately, pornography distributors know this and freely distribute their filth using media, especially the Internet. Now, they have a domain they can call “home” where Internet users can easily access pornography and feed their addictions.

I praise you for your efforts to educate families through the “Take Charge” program. Once my son, who is 2 years old, is old enough to be using computers I plan on applying those principles.

Sincerely,

It was a little intimidating writing Cox because they are such a big company. Who knows if a little voice like mine will be heard?

Media and Your Family

Women for Decency, a group in Utah who promote decency, recently sent out an email with these tips for families and their use of media. Media is such a blessing to us, but it also can be a curse if we are not careful. Here are their helpful tips to keep your family and home safe:

-Avoid using the [computer or] TV as a babysitter.

-Know what your kids are exposed to: viewing, listening.

-Do not have wireless devices or TVs  in bedrooms.

-Set guidelines for children and adults.

-No media at  certain times (such as meal time).

-Watch or listen as a family and DISCUSS  it.

-Use some media, such as VCR and DVD,  to advantage.

-Be socially active about voicing concerns.

-Teach your kids to be media critcs.

-Be careful of what you watch and always remember you can ...TURN IT OFF!!!!


PS - Don't you love that picture? Isn't that how we should be using the TV and other media, as a family?

Update Action Item: Contacting Congress and the Senate

The deadline to send the letter to the Attorney General has been moved back to April 1st. There is still time to contact your senators and congressmen! New signatures are being added every week.

The Future of this organization

For now, you may notice that we are mostly addressing concerning indecencies we see in the community through writing letters. However, eventually I would like to do more promotion of decency through events like a modest prom dress fashion show for high schoolers, educating families about decency and the harmful effects of pornography, and a White Ribbon Week. I will need more supporters to make these come to fruition. But just so yo know, we are not going to only be writing letters. We are going to make our name known so that people in the community understand that there is an organization who stands up for decency!

Action Item: Writing your internet provider

In response to the approval of the .xxx domain by ICANN we need to let our internet providers know that we do not support this domain.

We have Cox and I think most residents in Sahuarita have Cox too. I am writing the Vice President and General Manager, Mr. Stephen Rizley. Cox's mailing address is:

1550 W. Deer Valley Rd.
Phoenix AZ 85027


While looking around on their website I noticed that they have a good program for educating families about internet safety. That is something we could praise them on in our letters. I even read that they don't support having a TV and/or computer in every child's room. That's great! Because when TVs and computers are in private places in the home, like rooms, people are much more likely to come across and become interested in inappropriate material.


While looking at their policies (you know, the list of rules and regulations that everyone has to say they have read, before receiving a service or agreeing to something, that no one really reads) I noticed this statement that could help us in our letter 


Cox reserves the right to refuse to post or to remove any information or materials from the Service, in whole or in part, that Cox deems, in its sole discretion, to be illegal, offensive, indecent, or otherwise objectionable.


Let's let them know that we think the .XXX domain is all of the above, illegal, offensive, indecent, or otherwise objectionable, and we ask them not to carry it or support it. 

Update on Action Item: Library Magazines

I got my letter addressed to the Green Valley library back in the mail today with a sticker from the post office saying the address was "invalid." I looked on the library website and it looks like if you want to send mail to the library you have to send it to a mailing address in Tucson:


Pima County Public Library
101 N. Stone Ave.
Tucson, AZ 85701



I will either drop it off to the Green Valley library in person or I will mail it to the address in Tucson and cross my fingers it makes it to Ms. Mathewson.