To Senator Sam Brownback:

It was a pleasure meeting you last week at the pornography summit, and I appreciate you taking the time to speak with me even though we don’t agree on many of the issues about which we are both so passionate.I wanted, Sir, to repeat my challenge to you. I recognize the absolute belief you have that the data you and your experts present are valid and correct. At the same time, I have heard nationally-recognized and credentialled experts who present far different data. If your witnesses are correct and the data they present are valid, then surely, Senator, they wouldn’t mind discussing them with other experts whose research shows their data to be false and their conclusions invalid.

Regulation without dialogue results in flawed legislation that often falls short of achieving its legitimate objectives. It undermines respect for the law, and it risks failing Constitutional challenge. By not permitting open dialogue, Senator, you are weakening the process you hold dear, and weakening the result that I know you’re trying to strengthen.

Many people in attendance heard you, Senator, when you told me that you would not invite opposing testimony, that a Democrat would have to do that. Many people heard one of the organizers of the pornography summit respond to the same challenge by telling me “I’m not going to provide your side with a platform for your opinions!” My “side,” Senator, is the “side” of open, democratic debate, with a wide range of scientific input. That’s the same “side” as the Constitution and Supreme Court.

There is no accomplishment, Senator, in simply gathering a group of like-minded individuals who all agree on a problem and its solution, congratulating themselves for knowing what’s best for an entire society and ignoring others who differ. Unfortunately, it’s done in countries around the world every day. But you, Sir, are a Senator in the greatest democracy on Earth, where things are done in a more complicated fashion. As Americans, we expect you to open this debate to those who have a different view, different data, and different experience. There are many Americans with different beliefs about the causes of the problems your hearings and summits attribute to pornography, and they deserve the same voice as Citizens for Community Values and others to whom you provide a platform.

The challenge, Sir, is in having enough faith in your beliefs to allow them to be challenged – to expose them to the light of day where they might be refuted and possibly proven incorrect. To quote Justice Potter Stewart, “Censorship reflects society’s lack of confidence in itself.” You don’t seem, Senator, to lack confidence in your beliefs, so I hope you will accept my challenge to provide an honest, democratic, scientific debate on the subject of pornography.

Respectfully,
Ricci J. Levy, Executive Director
Woodhull Freedom Foundation