On either side of the main entrance to the capitol building in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, are larger-than-life statues depicting men and women herded in masses, struggling for those oblique ideals that government art always seems to evoke: liberty and freedom and justice.
Several years ago, Pennsylvania's lawmakers decided those white-stoned statues guarding the gates of liberty and freedom and justice were taking just a bit too much liberty in dangling their freedom for all to see. So they commissioned modern-day artists to plaster over the statues' private parts.
This year, Pennsylvania's lawmakers are involved in a new debate over a different kind of public exposure. As a result, they found themselves unwittingly exposed to other possibly offensive art: an anti-censorship activist attempting to regale them loudly with the naughty lyrics of number-one rapper and murder suspect Snoop Doggy Dogg during a debate over a new law that would outlaw selling recordings with warning labels to minors. This dispute has drawn the national attention and lobbying muscle of special interest groups and civil liberties advocates--and also splintered traditional liberals and fueled charges of racism from all sides.
Black-and-white "Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics" labels have been applied to albums by the recording industry itself for nearly a decade. But the labeling was only agreed to under public pressure, and with the understanding that the labels were informational, not a legal instrument to restrict sales. If this bill passes--and it seems likely to--it could change the ground rules not only in Pennsylvania, but in other states looking to follow suit.
Similar debates are already raging in at least four other states:
* In Washington state, the Harmful Material to Minors bill would create "adults only" sections in music stores, and keep minors out of concerts where "harmful recordings" were performed.
* In Louisiana, a $1,000 fine or six-month prison term could be handed down to violators of a proposed bill that would prohibit the sale or distribution of "lyrics harmful to minors," with a minor defined as an unmarried person under the age of 17.
* In New York, a bill proposed in March would prohibit the sale of music to minors with lyrics describing, advocating, or glamorizing suicide, sodomy, rape, incest, bestiality, sadomasochism, adultery, murder, violent racism, religious violence, morbid violence, or the illegal use of drugs or alcohol.
* And in New Mexico, a bill currently in the state House's Judiciary Committee would make it illegal to expose minors to violent or sexually explicit material through media including pictures, sculptures, film, and music.
Such laws would be a serious blow to First Amendment rights. But beyond the legal and constitutional problems are more difficult questions about racism, the social responsibility of the megamillion-dollar recording industry, and the ever-increasing violence that plagues America's city streets and the teenagers who hang out there.
Afloor vote on the Pennsylvania bill is expected sometime this fall in the state House of Representatives. It sailed through the Judiciary Committee 15-6 in February, and it can probably pass on the floor with the same margin of popularity.
The law, if passed, would create two new crimes in Pennsylvania. First, it would make it a crime for any store owner to knowingly sell a tape or compact disc with a parental warning label on it to anyone under 18 years old, unless the minor's parents were present. It would also make it a crime for a minor to misrepresent himself or herself as being 18 years old in order to buy music with a warning label. Anyone who sells the music to a minor would owe a $25 fine for the first offense and a $100 fine for each subsequent offense. Minors caught buying the music would be forced into 10 hours of community service.
Democratic state Rep. T.J. Rooney, the prime sponsor of the bill, says the measure would help curb "youth violence that is undoubtedly fueled by the type of irresponsible stuff they hear in these recordings....I'm not dumb enough or naive enough to believe if this bill passes it will solve all our problems. But it's got to be part of the larger discussion."
The discussion isn't just about whether any restriction of music sales is right. A larger question is: What music is being labelled, and who does the labeling?
"All the talk about this being unconstitutional is a bunch of crock," says Rooney. The Constitution safeguards the public against governmental powers. Since the state would have nothing to say about which recordings get slapped with a label, the state would not be acting as a censor, he says. "It just drives the record industry nuts because we're using their own standards," Rooney chuckles.
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