Thirty Years Ago This Week: “This fight is not about obscenity—it is about censorship,” said Joyce Meskis, owner of the Tattered Cover Bookstore and member of the newly formed Colorado Citizens against Censorship steering committee.

According to its organizers, the CCAC had been formed to fight a proposed ballot initiative that would regulate so-called obscenity to the full extent as permitted by the U.S. Supreme Court’s interpretation of the First Amendment.

The main argument in favor of the obscenity initiative had been that the Colorado Supreme Court made regulation of pornography almost impossible by requiring it be proven “intolerable” by the community.

But the CCAC argued that the obscenity initiative was nothing more than an attempt by the conservative organization Coalition Helping to Insure Laws for Dignity to “give government the power to censor what adults may read, see and hear,” said lobbyist Flo Mendez, CCAC’s coordinator and representative of the Colorado Library Association.

“The amendment … could have a chilling effect on non-obscene materials which, nonetheless, had some sexual content — including important works of literature, art or science,” Meskis said.

Jamie LaRue of the Colorado Library Association said that the broader definition of obscenity was unnecessary as well as unwise.

“The proponents of the measure say the amendment is necessary to eliminate child pornography, which is strictly illegal in Colorado already,” LaRue said.

LaRue also pointed out that the obscenity measure would create conflicting definitions of pornography within the same library district. Since, under the proposed measure, the definition of obscenity depended on “community standards” a librarian could run the risk of breaking the law by distributing a book in a conservative community that would be acceptable in a more liberal town.

Twenty Years Ago: Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo, CD-6, had just introduced a House resolution to condemn terrorist attacks committed in Beslan, Russia, and said that he would personally deliver messages of hope from Columbine High School students on a goodwill mission in mid-September.

On September 1, 2004, Beslan School No. 1 was celebrating the first day of the school year with whole families in attendance. Thirty-two armed terrorists, linked to Chechnya separatists, entered and took more than 1,100 people hostage, including 700 children. When the standoff ended two and a half days later, after a chaotic battle with federal security services, over 334 people were dead, 186 of them children.

“After experiencing a similar situation in which individuals also filled with hate had murdered innocent children, I feel that these messages will help lift those in Beslan to realize they are not alone,” Tancredo said. “Together we can rise up above this horrible act and show those who think they inflict harm only give us the hope.”

Writers Note: Russian President Vladimir Putin made his first visit to Beslan School No. 1 on August 20, 2024.

Ten Years Ago: House District 15 candidate Gordon Klingenschmitt issued a statement stating that Congressman Jared Polis, , “…wants to bankrupt Christians who refuse to worship and endorse his sodomy. Next he’ll join ISIS in beheading Christians.”

Colorado State Republican Party Chair Ryan Call denounced the inflammatory and racist remarks but El Paso County Republican Chair Jeffrey Hays did not go so far, saying instead: “I want to win. I believe in the value of us winning.”

El Paso County Democratic Chair Dr. Kathleen Ricker said that “There is no way I would tolerate a candidate in this county running under the banner of our Democratic county party and issuing such statements. I would rather us lose a race than have a candidate of such low moral stature represent us.”

Klingenschmitt said that he wanted to issue an apology to Polis, “even though he is openly gay.”

Rachael Wright is the author of the Captain Savva Mystery series, with degrees in Political Science and History from Colorado Mesa University, and is a contributing writer to Colorado Politics and The Colorado Springs Gazette.