Cancellation of ‘Girls Gone Wild’ event was unwarranted censorship

In regards to “‘Girls Gone Wild’ event canceled,” Jan. 25 Since when did America join the ranks of oppressive censoring nations such as Cuba, China and the former Soviet Union? I’m not a bright guy so I may be mistaken, but I thought the United States had a constitution, and that it upheld its citizens’ rights to freedom of expression.\nSure, “Girls Gone Wild” isn’t the classiest business in the world, but what they do is legal. If there are protests for everything that isn’t 100 percent moral, we can say goodbye to pretty much everything in the civilized world. If one has a problem with something avoidable, why not avoid it? Would it really have been that onerous for these “protesters” to stay away from Jake’s Nightclub when “GGW” was there? Of course not. Instead they felt it necessary to petition the mayor and owner of Jake’s. Obviously, under duress and fearing negative publicity, the owner of a bar will cancel a controversial show to protect his or her business. So, in essence, these protesters manifested censorship of a legal act. But it’s OK, who cares about white-collar terrorism when there are exigent issues like girls lifting their shirts.\nThe IDS article published two Thursdays ago concerning this matter had valid points; however, it was extremely biased. These “activists” were portrayed to be much more pure than is actually the case. The Facebook group alluded to defames Joe Francis of “GGW” by calling him a rapist, which is completely invalid. Francis has never been convicted of anything except not keeping documented proof of all the girls’ ages (which does not mean the girls were under 18). The article also failed to mention the full name of the Facebook group, which is “Joe Francis is a Rapist: Fuck GGW and Mantra Entertainment.” The creator and members of this group also used derogatory terms about homosexuals and negatively stereotyped “fratboys” as being closet members of that sexual orientation. Apparently freedom of expression is alright when it involves written vulgarities and slurs, but not when it involves other forms of vulgarities; isn’t that hypocrisy?\nI’m not saying “GGW” is a good thing, but if protests are causing breakdowns in our fundamental rights (directly or indirectly), something must be done before we find ourselves on a slippery slope we cannot recover from. After all, this is America, land of the free, is it not?\nKevin Danilo\nJunior