For the last 5-6 years, I’ve worried about free speech in Houston and elsewhere because of the way some politicians have proposed/erected roadblocks in the form of intrusive legislation against adult entertainment. It has certainly seemed one-sided, hypocritical, and out-of-touch with serving the public.

Because of a recent so-called ''jury'' decision, I’m now also concerned about the city of Tampa where it seems that some jurists reportedly felt pressured by other members of the jury during recent deliberations incident to government charges against Max Hardcore concerning obscenity and shipments of his adult videos productions. Now, I admittedly don’t personally get sexual pleasure out of the Max Hardcore videos, but, like all Americans, he’s entitled to free speech. Max has many fans of his work, so there must be demand for his video content. I wish the efforts put into ''getting'' Max had instead been put into the fight against terrorism, drugs, child porn (90% of which originates in foreign countries like Russia), clergy sexual violations of minors, and other ''real'' crimes.

I sense that radical religious hypocrites are celebrating that they ''got'' Max. But, I personally think they need to realize that curtailing the rights of American adults to be entertained by other consenting adults doesn’t lesser the thirst or availability of Americans to access and enjoy Adult Entertainment. In the case of adult DVDs, taking down the ''porn'' Industry won’t stop the normalcy of Americans desiring unfettered access to porn; instead, the void might well be filled by harsher ''Euro'' porn from Eastern Europe, the former Ussr, and other places where very ''hardcore'' content will flood America, and its computer screens and other delivery platforms. ''Closing down'' American porn does nothing, other than give the monetary economics of the porn business to non- Americans. What happened in Tampa recently seems Un-American – no one on a jury should feel pressured by other jury members, or anyone else, to convict!

We presently have Americans fighting and dying overseas in wars. Their efforts, along with the people involved in other past conflicts, are contributing towards the continued preservation of our American freedoms. One of those precious freedoms is the right to continued free speech, and to privacy, and security. Politicians in power, as well as government entities at all levels, need to realize that they cannot allow themselves to be ''pushed'' by campaign contributors, religious hypocrites, or other politicians who ''feel'' a need to make citizens comply with their own personal religious standards, not Even as it Relates to Adult Entertainment!

Candidly, I’m feeling almost as much concerned about the potential for loss of personal freedoms at the hands of our own government and/or American politicians and/or radical religious hypocrites, as I am about radical religious terrorists.

The upcoming elections might alleviate some of the above, but we All need to become informed Voters.

Please Vote!

Dave Cummings,
www.davecummings.com / www.davecummings.TV