Opinion

How Do We Keep Porn Out of the Mailbox?

By JOHN GATHRIGHT

Our 3-year-old son, Johnny, takes great pride and joy in playing postman. Every morning he is the first out the front door to bring in the newspaper. Rain, wind or snow, he faithfully bounds back up the stairs, smile beaming from ear to ear as he proudly hands me the daily news and whatever other letters may be in the post box.

This morning was different. There was no bounce in his run, no joy on his face. Looking very perplexed, he asked, "Daddy, what are these mummys doing? Why are they naked?"

What!? In his tiny fist he held a flyer for adult videos plastered with seductively posed women who were fully exposed

Oh! How am I going to explain this one?! Frantic for an idea, the only thing that popped out of my mouth was, "They forgot to wear their bathing suits. Remember when we went to the beach and we forgot yours and you ran around naked? Well...."

While my wife talked to my shell-shocked son, I called the telephone number on the flyer. "We have small children who will be adversely affected by the graphic pornographic pictures you use," I said. "We do not want to receive your flyers in our mailbox. Who can I talk to to ensure that this doesn't happen again?"

The person on the other end of the line insisted that he was just part-time and that he only took orders, not complaints.

The only other option was to catch the person delivering the flyers. My wife and I, plus some of the neighbors who sympathized with our plight, kept vigilant watch over our mailboxes. I just happened to come home one evening to find a middle-aged woman putting the raunchy flyers in our mailboxes.

My first thought was: "Oh! She is probably a mother and will be sympathetic to the concerns of parents with small children, I'll just kindly ask her to not put them in our box." Talk about judging a book by its cover — her reaction hit like a slap in the face.

"I have thousands of these to deliver," she said. "I can't remember who has kids or not. Leave me alone. I'm just doing my job!"

Mild-mannered John was just about to explode: "Hey, this is my mailbox! On my property! I have the right to say what is put into my mailbox!"

"Call the police," she retorted, "It's not against the law to deliver these! Don't bug me!"

I did call the police, and was shocked to find it is not against the law. The officer suggested that we, the parents, collect the mail from then on, thus robbing Johnny of the pride and joy of playing postman.

The mailbox is part of our home, and we would never let anyone bring naked pictures into our home to show to our kids! It is bad enough that the law allows unscrupulous companies to deliver pornographic materials to people's homes indiscriminately. But it is horrendous that there is no law to protect us from further attacks of indecency after we have formally asked them to stop delivering the flyers. I feel that this is a terrible invasion of privacy and a form of sexual harassment. People should have their personal freedom to subscribe to such services, but we also deserve the same personal freedom to refuse them. Laws should protect the people — all the people, especially children.

Shukan ST: April 10, 1998

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