Pirates II and The StateAlexander S. Peak 9 April 2009 As a libertarian, I am—obviously—strongly opposed to censorship. In fact, it was my strong opposition to censorship and racism that initially sparked my intrigue in politics. It should come therefore as no surprise that I have a strong opinion regarding the recent attempt by Maryland Senator Andrew P. Harris to influence the screening of Pirates II: Stagnetti’s Revenge, a 2008 porn flick, on the college campuses of Maryland. The controversy arose after the University of Maryland College Park student union began the process of organising a screening of the film, and students across Maryland have been talking about it since, including students at our own Towson University. The Thursday, April 9, 2009 edition of our campus paper, The Towerlight, had two opinion pieces on the recent controversy, one from Sports Editor Pete Lorenz and the other from Associate Arts Editor Tyler Waldman (p. 4). Unfortunately, I think my friend Mr. Waldman is confused about the exact nature of the problem. According to Waldman, Mr. Lorenz “claims that because the University of Maryland is a state institution, the state has the right to control things that go on there.” But at no point does Lorenz claim that governments possess rights. The one time he uses the word “rights” in his article is to say that “Terp kids” had and still have a “right to show these lovely videos.” And he’s right. Mr. Lorenz’s point here is not to defend Mr. Harris’s pathetic attempt to micromanage, but rather to say the whole system is “screwed up” and “broken” precisely because we lack a separation of education and state. As long as governments continue to fund enterprises, they will also try to control and regulate the activities and people involved, in this case students. As activists for free speech, it behoves us to advocate a separation of education and state, thus doing away with what Mr. Lorenz correctly describes as a broken system. Alex Peak served as President of the College Libertarians of Towson, 2004–2006; Membership Chair, 2006–2007; and Vice President, 2007–2008. |