Political Quotes

“I oppose Senator McCain's amendment, originally introduced as S. 1619, to require schools and libraries wired with federal funds to install Internet filtering software. Congress has wisely seen fit to make the Internet widely available to young people throughout the country by subsidizing school and library access to the Internet through ``E-rate'' discounts. The McCain amendment would undermine the benefits of that access by forcing schools and libraries to use filtering technologies to remove a significant percentage of material available on-line. Internet filtering issues should be discussed and implemented locally, not nationally, and certainly not by piggybacking a filtering bill onto a crime bill and spiriting them to the Senate floor as amendments to an appropriations bill. While we can all agree that some material available on the Internet may be unsuitable for certain age groups, there is serious disagreement concerning the best approach to the challenge of protecting our children from exposure to unsuitable material. Fundamentally, this is a decision that should be made at the local level, by families and school boards, librarians and educators in their own communities. Although I share the deep concerns about children's access to obscenity and other harmful materials on the Internet, in the rush to protect children, we should not unnecessarily chill the freedom of expression that occurs on-line. The intention of this amendment is good.”