by I may have to change my mind on something I had been pondering. I was wondering aloud the other day if it made sense to let people do things that we know to be sin, just so that it would be easier to convince people that they were sinners. I’m not quite sure that that works, and that’s why I don’t think I could ever be a libertarian.
This recent article goes to my point. It’s from thestranger, and it begins in a way you would figure to be right…
A 24-year-old computer-repair technician at Quidnunc—the bustling computer store on California Avenue Southwest at Alaska Junction—is used to seeing porn pop up on people’s computers. “Everything from beaver shots to weirder stuff like Japanese animation featuring tentacles and slime,” he says. “You get pretty desensitized.”However, the file he saw last month while repairing one customer’s computer freaked him out. It was titled “5-year-old Girl” and it was a picture of a grown man having sex with a little girl. There were several other JPEG files with similar titles, he says.
It’s against the law to not report child porn, so he called the police.
And then the civil rights people come into play:
Last week, in response to the Police Beat item, Quidnunc received the following anonymous letter: “Although I do believe child pornography is wrong, sick, disgusting, etc., I believe it is equally wrong what your employees did… I do not want to be concerned about some misguided do-gooder taking my private information and reporting it to ‘Big Brother.’ This is just one more example of the decay in civil rights in this country and you have chosen to contribute to it. I will not let this happen. I will no longer patronize your business… Just two days ago I referred a friend to your business to have his computer upgraded. I immediately called him and strongly advised him to go elsewhere. When I explained why, he agreed. We need to begin organizing boycotts against individuals who threaten our personal freedoms.”
This connects us with my last post. I know it’s wrong, but don’t going trying to find the wrong I’m doing. It’s within my rights to be wrong and to not have you find me out. This goes along with these other great truths:
- Although the posted speed limit is 55, I’m entitled to go however fast I want as long as I’m not pulled over.
- It’s fine for me to do any kind of drug in my house, so long as I’m not caught.
- …
Right or wrong doesn’t matter. What does matter is that I’m allowed to have a shade of privacy. This doesn’t take into account that God can see you no matter whether you door is closed, and I don’t see allowing the government to walk into your house and look for things on your computer without some kind of reason, but in this case… The guy brings a computer in with a problem opening images, and an employee finds an image, and there you are. It’s not like it was a child in a bathtub (a previous post I had) that was questionable, this was child porn.
He was caught, and the civil rights guy overreacted.
That is way beyond disgusting and sick. How could raping a 5-year-old girl be that person’s right? What about her rights? Or does she not exist in his pathetic self-indulgence.
I hope the police nails him to the wall, may he never see the light of day again.
I hope Bill O’Reilly gets wind of this.
I cannot believe the reaction of the public! I would be interested to see if company policy changes because of this. I cannot imagine not reporting something like that regardless of the consequences! Who cares if people hate you if you are doing the right thing?
Totally agree with Leticia and Shelli.
Your post made me think of how important it is that we train our children to do right because it’s right, because God says it’s right. Not because if they get caught, they’ll get in trouble. Which is the message we sometimes give them in training.
So many have the idea that if no one is hurt by it (not the case in your post!) or no one finds out about it, then it’s okay. Uh, uh.
It’s hard, as parents, to always catch a child in the act of doing something wrong, that is certain. Part of our ability to get them to do right rests on our discipline and part on their perception of what we can catch– “Mom has eyes in the back of her head!”
We need to make sure that they understand– like you said– that God sees all things, and no bad deed will go unpunished!