Several years ago after a trip to the Soviet Union, I was given a page taken from Penthouse Magazine as a joke, and I like to keep it on the bulletin board in the editorial office.

Now, before you jump to any rash and unfounded conclusions regarding my character—no, it is not a centerfold or any other kind of girly-girl photos for that matter. It is instead, a message sponsored by the magazine.

Printed on a scarlet background, a golden star hangs above a golden hammer and sickle. Underneath, the headline reads: “Censorship can make the world a better place.”

Not what you expect to find in the United States let alone in a newspaper’s editorial office, is it? Well, I’ve taken this page with me wherever I’ve written to stand as a reminder, not the headline but the message underneath.

The copy printed below the headline begins—”Censorship can make your life easier. When somebody makes decision about what you can read and see and hear, you don’t have to think as much.

“Censorship can cure the world of problems like violent crime and child abuse. If you believe information and ideas cause problems—instead of people.

“Censorship can help everyone agree. If you weren’t free to read or hear disenting opinions, or to express your own, it would be a lot easier to agree…just as easy as it was in Nazi, Germany, or as it is today in Cuba, Iran and the Soviet Union.”

But here’s where the message takes a turn—”Once we make exceptions to the freedoms guaranteed us under the First Amendment anything can happen…

“As an American, you have the freedom to say NO to censorship. Say it today—tomorrow may be too late…”

Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings, but unfortunately someone didn’t say NO, or if they did no one listened. And it happened here in the United States.

This summer a man named Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela celebrated his 70th birthday.

Dedicated to the cause of equal rights and opportunity in South Africa, Mandela has advocated non-violent defiance of the government’s apartheid since the early 1950s. Today he serves a life-imprisonment sentence for treason. The South African government considers Mandela to be the greatest threat to its stability.

To celebrate Mandela’s birthday a huge celebration was planned—‘The Nelson Mandela Freedom at 70′ campaign, a five week-long series of demonstrations, kicked off by a sold-out concert in England’s Wembley Stadium and “broadcast” in 60 countries.

But the concert which was “broadcast” here in the good old U S of A was not exactly the real thing.

The “broadcast” came the American public compliments of Rupert Murdock’s (that name alone makes journalists shudder) Fox network and Coca-Cola (which still distributes in South Africa).

Now correct me if this next part seems to you to be merely my imagination, but if I’m not mistaken it is censorship in its purist form. Here are the facts—the decision is yours…

The 11-hour concert which aired in the U.S. was “surgically censored” down to five hours and renamed Freedomfest.

Coca-Cola bought as many as five commercial spots per hour during the broadcast.

Fox network deleted nearly every statement against the South African government’s system of apartheid. The network allowed George Michael’s side-stepping comment, “I know there are certain restrictions in certain parts of the world as to what people think this day’s all about. But you guys all know, yeah?” But it deleted Peter Gabriel’s remark, “South Africa is the only country in the world which has racism enshrined in its constitution.”

The connections are there…a specifically political concert edited for American viewers by a network sponsored by a company with interest in South Africa…

NO! I hope it’s not too late…