Well, so I decided I’d ask the County Legislature what it thought of Maggie Brooks’ plan to shut down Internet access in the public library by cutting funding. So I asked them. All of them. I sent the following letter to every email address of all 29 Legislators to see who would write back and who would not:

Dear Legislator,

My name is Tom Belknap and I write for DragonFlyEye.Net, a local news and opinion Internet magazine. Thank you for taking the time to read this message. I have some questions for you about a current issue in Monroe County and I look forward to hearing your opinion on the subject.

The issue at hand is the availability of adult content in the Rochester Public Library that was reported on by Channel 10 News. Our County Executive, Maggie Brooks, is currently threatening to withhold County funding for the library unless all access to adult content is eliminated.

Regardless of our personal feelings on the subject, there is a problem of Constitutionality with what Mrs. Brooks proposes. The Supreme Court has already ruled that, while access can be restricted as indeed the Rochester Public Library does already, it must be unblocked at a user?s request. Thus far, Mrs. Brooks? proposals seem to attempt to countermand that ruling.

My questions for you are the following:
1. Do you believe that Mrs. Brooks? proposal should be followed through on, eliminating access to adult content from computers in the public library on a permanent basis?
2. Do you believe that Mrs. Brooks? proposal violates the ruling of the Supreme Court?
3. If indeed the proposal is challenged on Constitutional grounds, is it the County?s intention to address this issue in Federal courts, if necessary?
4. What do you believe are the potential ramifications of the County being in violation of the Constitution, if that is the ruling?

You are free, of course, to express your personal opinion on the subject of adult content in the library. However, my primary concern is the above three questions.

Thank you again for reading this message. Please respond back to this email address.

We shall see what kind of response this gets. So far, only one Legislator has responded to my query, and that was Jack Driscoll (R/C/I) of Henrietta. . . inside of two hours after my sending the email. He’s a Republican, so I’m sure we disagree on many things, but this responsiveness is to his credit.

His response was as follows:

I do not believe adult content access is the responsibility of government at any level. I am being told that the supreme court ruling says the library MAY unblock a site if requested. I will review the ruling myself if the issue goes to a vote in the legislature. In the meantime I hope cooler heads prevail.

Well, there you have it.? He’s wrong about the “may” bit.? The SCOTUS doesn’t really deal in “may,” too often.? But it’s a response, nonetheless.? I didn’t expect him to agree, but I think some credit is due for the response.