It appears that some members of our society have forgotten there is a Bill of Rights.

The Bill of Rights, as you (should) know are the first ten amendments to our somewhat out-dated constitution. Included in it are the right ot free speech, expression, assembly and press, the right ot privacy, the right to a fair trial and so on. But recently if seems that these rights are by far outweighed by the twisted wishes of the minority of the Moral Majority.

Take, for instance, all the recent hullaballoo about obscenity in the arts. Robert Mapplethorpe’s art exhibits have been banned in Ohio, and the gallery owner who showed the works was arrested. All this because a few, fanatical moralists decided that what they don’t want to see no one should have the right to see, or, for that matter, have the right to decide for themselves what they would like to view.

Meanwhile in Louisiana, a lyric bill floats around which would force the music industry to label music concerning its contents. Does this not ring (at least slightly) of censorship? If parents cannot influence what their children listen to, why should an entire industry be forced to be their nannies? Whatever happened to parental responsibility?

The problem is two-fold. Not only have the rights of the public been violated by these fanatics, but the rights of artists as well. These moralists are saying that only art and music which pleases their virgin-like dispositions will be acceptable to the entire public of the United States of America. Artists must now censor themselves if they hope to receive any kind of aid from the National Endowment for the Arts- without which they surely will struggle. Their 2ights have undoubtly been outweighed by an extremely vocal group of closed-minded moralists who are too busy butting into other people’s business when instead they simply could be avoiding the art which they find so distasteful and keeping their mouths shut, allowing others to make up their own minds.

This moralist minority is also bleeding into other areas and attempting to erase the right of privacy off the books with the abortion issue. These people have an uncanny knack for being moralist peeping Toms, perversely preoccupied with what their neighbors are doing in their own bedrooms. It is very strange, this fascination they have with other people’s lives, decisions and behaviors. Very strange and very distressing indeed.

This also lends itself to the right-to-die issue. These days, even the closet of family members cannot decide if a loved-one should be allowed to die. Is it not disconcerting that a stranger in a black robe has the right to decide who may live and who may die, regardless of the fact that he or she has no personal involvement with the family in question? Another fine example of the nosey American way.

Although the Constitution is more than 200 years old, and parts of it are horribly old-fashioned, let us all remember that there are amendments which pertain to all of society. The rights of free expression and privacy are rights to be held dear to all of us and not to be taken away by conservatives who wish to go back to some golden age which never truely existed.