Boycott Common Cause!
Boycott Common Cause!
Eric (04/01/1993-10/23/2006)
New! Check out Marjorie Heins's new book, Not in Front of the Children.
If you'd like to learn about my home town, check out A Year in the Life of Aitkin, Minnesota.) Here is a photo of me and my partner, Jim D'Entremont, taken by the wonderful photographer, Elsa Dorfman. (I'm the taller one on your left.) If you're like a capsule summary of what I've been up to (at least for the past 5 years), here's my Harvard College 35th reunion report. (I consider Harvard one of the world's most overrated institutions. I concede, however, that it has educated some of our most successful criminals.)
For several years, I've been politically active fighting censorship, and this site contains several of my writings on free-speech issues. But here are my views in a nutshell.
I abhor the current unholy alliance among prosecutors, psychotherapists, and "liberals," and their goal of the absolute therapeutic state -- what I call therafascism.
I oppose authoritarianism, including political correctness. I reject liberalism, conservatism, Libertarianism, Marxism, communitarianism, classism, sexism, ageism, racism, feminism, and homosexualism (the ideology). I commit the three ultimate heresies of the "liberal" police state: I believe that justice is better than injustice, that freedom is better than slavery, and that truth is better than falsehood.
I am proud to say that I am not a nice person. Most of the world's misery is caused by nice people who have the best of intentions. We need fewer nice people and more good people.
It's true. There are more loathsome people per square foot in Massachusetts than in any other state of the union. The downmarket Nazis and racists are worse. The upmarket liberals are worse. The fancy columnists are worse. The yahoo columnists are worse. The churches are worse. The sports fans are worse. The food is worse. The Boston traffic is worse. The weather is worse. And the judges...I agree with Cockburn wholeheartedly. Within Massachusetts, the loathsome density is greatest in the city of Cambridge. And within Cambridge, it achieves its maximum at the Middlesex County District Attorney's office.--Alexander Cockburn, "Hateful Massachusetts," New York Press, May 7-13, 1997
Read this letter I sent to personal friends in April of 1997, expressing my concerns about the ordeals still suffered by these good and decent people. Here is a reflection on the death of Violet Amirault by Frank Kane. Go to this section of my home page for more information about the Sex Panic.
Read about the frightening case of Bernie Baran.
Index of Dubious Accusations and Convictions.
Check out the new online magazine, Justice
Denied.
I am a writer and from April 1992 through 21 June 1997, I was privileged to serve as Chair or Co-Chair of The Political Issues Committee of The National Writers Union. (UAW Local 1981 AFL-CIO). The NWU is part of the coalition fighting to preserve freedom of expression in cyberspace. Please read their Resolution affirming free speech and privacy rights. The NWU was one of 20 plaintiffs who challenged the Communications Decency Act (part of the Telecommunications bill signed by President Clinton on February 8, 1996). Please read the complaint, the brief, and the NWU's affidavit. On June 12, 1996, the three-judge panel in Philadelphia decided unanimously in our favor. Please read their decision.
The fight for online free speech went to the Supreme Court. Read their press release of March 19, 1997, following oral arguments before the Supreme Court. On June 26, 1997, we won our case. The war, however, is far from over. The fight for free speech in cyberspace will continue for many years to come.
Here are a few interesting essays about freedom of speech in cyberspace:
"Bob Chatelle is famous for writing half-truth and open distortions about Christians and people of faith."
One of the most depressing developments in recent years is the phenomenal growth of book banning, especially in our public libraries, the libraries of our schools, and our classrooms. The most active book banners are members of the theocratic right, but bannings are also promoted by the "politically correct" left. The National Writers Union opposes book bannings, regardless where the censors are positioned on the political spectrum.
At present, we are fighting the shameful banning of Luis Rodriguez's award-winning book, Always Running, in Rockford, Illinois. Please read about this incident and help us out. The above quote from Simonds (a prominent leader of the theocratic right) was his response to my defense of this book. (I seriously doubt that Simonds had ever heard of me prior to his learning that I opposed the censorious actions of the Rockford School Board.)
Please read this letter from Rockford School Board Member Ed Sharp. It provides a chilling insight into the mind of a censor.
Many false claims are now based on the scientifically groundless theory of repressed memory, promulgated by such misinformation-packed best sellers as The Courage to Heal, Victims No Longer and Trauma and Recovery. My good friend and National Writers Union brother, Mark Pendergrast, has written an excellent book, Victims of Memory, about the theory of repressed memory and the enormous harm it has done. His web page also contains useful links for those who wish to follow this important debate.
Another contemporary tragedy is the great many innocent teachers, parents, and daycare workers who have been sent to prison because of false accusations of sexually molesting the children in their care. Read Salem's Shadow, which I wrote with my partner, Jim D'Entremont.
Yet another disturbing aspect of the sex panic is the myth of widespread child pornography, which has proved a most effective justification for government oppression. In 1995, for example, Senators Hatch (R-UT) and Feinstein (D-CA) co-sponsored the bill to outlaw art, S.1237, signed into law by President Clinton. I recommend First Amendment attorney Larry Stanley's critique of this atrocity.
Because of the sex panic, many innocent parents have been arrested and brutalized by the state for photographing their own children. I recommend that all who care about free speech read about the astonishing and frightening case of Toni Marie Angeli, which happened in the infamous People's Republic of Cambridge.
I recommend Mary Granfield's essay, The Molester Within.
No one questions that some adults sexually misbehave with children, or that the young and vulnerable are sometimes victims of terrible acts of violence, including rape and murder. But because of misinformation in the media and hysteria generated by self-serving politicians, most people are tragically uninformed about the actual risk of sexual abuse (especially by strangers, which in fact is very low); the probability of offenders repeating (very low, in the 10-20% rate even without treatment), the responsiveness of offenders to treatment (some approaches to treatment have proved to be highly effective); and the amount of safety provided by sex-offender registries (none whatsoever). If you wish sober and accurate information about sex offenders, I recommend this article about sex offenders, published by the National Center on Institutions and Alternatives, co-founded in 1977 by Dr. Jerome G. Miller, former Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Youth Services, Director of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, and Commissioner of Children and Youth for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
For a deeper view of my own thinking about these issues, and about freedom of expression in general, I suggest you read my article The Limits to Free Expression and The Problem of Child Pornography. I was assailed by a front-page article in New England's newspaper of record, the "liberal" Boston Globe, as a result of placing this essay on the internet. Some topics are so taboo that one cannot safely even discuss them.
If you're interested, you're welcome to read more of my writing.
As a civil libertarian and an anti-censorship activist. I'm very concerned about the sad state of freedom of expression on our college campuses. You might be interested in reading my report on art bashing and assaults on freedom of expression at Hampshire College, located in Amherst, Massachusetts. Also, I wrote this letter to Cornell regarding the controversy about the document, "75 Reasons Why Women Shouldn't Have Freedom of Speech."
After hearing about a student involved in a speech code violation at Wesleyan University, I wrote to President Douglas Bennet, providing him with a summary of legal decisions regarding campus speech codes.
I wrote a letter to the president of the University of New Orleans, where a professor was threatened for writing a letter to the editor of a newspaper, and also a letter to the President of Pennsylvania State University, protesting the denial of recognition to a student group called STRAIGHT.
I also protested another act of homophobic corporate art censorship in October of 1996, when the Chiofaro Company, which owns and manages Boston's International place, removed several pieces from an art exhibition in its lobby. The exhibition preceded an auction to benefit Boston's AIDS Action Committee. Read this article from The Guide, which I co-wrote with my partner Jim D'Entremont.
If you still have any doubts that Boston is America's sleaziest hick town, read about the banning of the play, Shakespeare's Dog.
If you're also interested in censorship, look into:
If you're specifically interested in civil liberties in cyberspace, I recommend you visit:
Check on Federal Legislation with Thomas.
I'd love to hear from you!
If you want to email me using PGP, here is my public key.
Robert B. Chatelle
