LETTER: Pornography issue need examining

Dear Editor,

I’m writing this letter in response to the article in Friday, April 20, 2001 paper titled “Panel asks if porn is freedom or blight.” I feel that the article did not adequately portray the issues people have with pornography.

Pornography can be enslaving and addictive. There are many laws dealing with other substances that are addicting. We recognize the ills of a few things and outlaw them but let our children see pornography everywhere. We are creating a society of “Sexual Addicts,” where the addict will do anything to keep the flow of sex and sexual feelings constant.

The addiction begins with pornography. The addicts, trapped in a rolling snowball, find themselves struggling to stop, but cannot. A second life emerges in which they are powerless. Pornography is damaging and degrading. When someone embraces it, despair and misery follow. The addict must look further and deeper to keep the most important need, sex, in continual supply.

Steps of exhibitionism, voyeurism, rape and incest can follow if the addict does not seek help. The addict becomes powerless over the addiction.

I beg those in the community and in leadership positions to continue the fight against pornography. Keep our children from becoming sexual addicts by not allowing pornography into their lives.

There are many good books on understanding sexual addiction and the damage it does to the addict and the co-addict. Two books I recommend are by Patrick Carnes’ “Out of the Shadows” and “Don’t call it Love.”

Nathan Cox