andrew@grkermi.UUCP (Andrew W. Rogers) (10/10/85)
It seems that the attacks on rock {'n' roll} follow a 15-year cycle:
1955: Attempts to link R&R to "juvenile delinquency".
1970: Spiro Agnew's allegations that R&R encourages teenagers
to experiment with drugs. (Wonder what kind of lyrics
encourage politicians to take kickbacks?)
1985: PMRC proposes system of warnings about lyrical content...
and now this:
Noted Springsteen fan Ronald Reagan has now joined the fray. In a fund-
raising speech in Virginia, he made the following remarks:
"I often think the real heroes of today are the parents, trying
to raise their children in an environment that seems to have
grown more and more hostile to family life."
"Music and the media floods [sic] their children's world with
glorifications of drugs and violence and perversity - and there's
nothing they can do about it, they're told, because of the First
Amendment."
"I don't think that James Madison, author of the Bill of Rights
and one of Virginia's proudest sons, ever imagined that his
great document of liberty would be twisted into a pretext for
license."
"I don't believe that our founding fathers [moral equivalent of
the contras? :-) ] ever intended to create a nation where the rights
of pornographers would take precedents over the rights of parents,
and the violent and malevolent would be given free rein to prey
upon our children."
Looks like Reagan's speeches need warning labels as well! I propose the
following:
G (guilt by association)
L (lies)
N (non sequiturs)
S (scare tactics)
AWR
"Congress shall make no law abr