MY TURN Carolyn Graves
08/21/03
Store sells pornography, feeds perversions in Oregon City
Remember Ashley and Miranda!
About five months ago, Oregon City issued a business license for a pornography shop to open on Seventh and Monroe streets.
This brought back to my mind the horror of two needless deaths taking place in Oregon City because of perversion. How the news media broadcast this tragedy all over the United States because it was so bad. How hundreds of people stood at the fence where the girls' memorial was set up and brought stuffed animals and flowers, and held up traffic, because they felt so bad for the families and friends.
Perversion is stirred up by pornography -- lusting after those things that are not normal or ethical or moral. This brings out the worst in people, as we who walk the picket line in front of Sweet Heart's Adult Boutique have found out.
There is so much support for the picket line. People give us a thumbs up and holler, "Good job. We're not for that place." But what is being done about it?
It is hard to believe that as strict as Oregon City is in dealing with good businesses such as Wal-Mart, officials would be so lenient toward a porn shop. If the city is strict on some design and zoning issues, why not on others? The porn shop can have lewd T-shirts in the windows.
Several years ago, our pastor applied for a permit to start a church in a small storefront building. It took four months, three public hearings, an attorney and much money to get this done.
(You never know what a church might do. The city might get a reputation for being "churchy" or something -- as if that would be bad!)
The pornography shop got a permit for the store without a public hearing. The city commissioners said they did not know what kind of a store it was going to be. How can city officials issue a permit for something if they do not know what it is going to be?
Someone did not do their homework on this issue, and the ball was dropped. I think the city needs additional review of business license applications.
In Oregon City, there are 95 registered sex offenders, according to the Oregon State Police sex offender registry.
Let's get a grip on this so we do not attract the things that pervert and aggravate this situation more. We certainly do not want another Ashley and Miranda happening in our fine city!
Oregon City is a family-oriented city. A high school is very near the porn store. Children walk daily past the store, playing and going to the Dairy Queen, among other things. They get to look at the indecent T-shirts in the windows. What kind of an example are we setting for this next generation? What you sow today, you will reap tomorrow! Carolyn Graves of Oregon City has been picketing Sweet Heart's Adult Boutique once a week since it opened.
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