During spring and summer vacations every year, thousands of high school students travel to Washington, D.C., to see the sights in our nation’s capital city. Those who sponsor and encourage such trips like to think that the visits are educational, inspirational, and build pride in our country’s heritage and institutions.
There are some sights in Washington, D.C., however, which are unknown to most sponsors of such trips and to parents of the students, unless they have visited Washington, D.C., during the last several years. The students will not be able to avoid these new sights because they are on leading downtown streets within four blocks of the White House.
These sights are not listed in any travel or sightseeing brochures, but they are boldly advertised in Washington newspapers. If one is looking for entertainment in Washington, one cannot avoid seeing the ads side by side with the latest movies.
These new sights in our nation’s capital are the cesspools of so-called “adult” entertainment, boldly advertised and eagerly seeking business on the main streets of the city. No longer does one have to search them out on dark, side streets in distant corners of town; they are prominently located where no visitor can escape them, even with effort.
Daily advertisements in the Washington newspaper feature X-rated nude girl burlesk (that seems to be the fashionable spelling), X-rated all-nude all-male burlesk, homosexual movies, and live performances. There is even a new X-rated movie featuring a “Hot Child.”
In addition to theaters, newsstands and magazine shops in downtown Washington, close to the White House, feature photographs showing every form of human depravity.
Most law enforcement requires a sizeable staff and expensive investigation. The lawbreakers must be located despite their devious efforts to hide and escape. The evidence must be discovered and verified — a process that requires time, personnel, resourcefulness, and funds.
Cleaning up downtown Washington, D.C., would require no such expense. It would only require buying a 15¢ newspaper, reading the ads, walking a few blocks, and making arrests.
A telephone call from President Carter to his Attorney General could clean up Washington in a week. The Department of Justice has the duty to enforce the laws against obscenity just like any other criminal activity. If the present Attorney General is unwilling to enforce the laws against vice and obscenity in Washington, he should be replaced.
Since obscenity is known to be the most low-investment-high-return of all businesses, there should be an investigation to ascertain whether payoffs are blocking enforcement of the law. Maybe we have a burlesque-gate on our hands.
U.S. taxpayers have given many billions of dollars to make Washington, D.C., one of the most beautiful cities in the world. But the beauty of the famous landmarks and memorials cannot erase the moral ugliness of such highly advertised and openly displayed obscenity and vice.
Not only is Washington visited by thousands of high school students every year. It is also host to hundreds of thousands of other important visitors, including foreign officials and diplomats. What is their opinion of the American character when they see so much immorality brazenly exhibited so close to the White House?
The ads for the obscene shows proclaim the dogma of the vice peddlers: “Nothing is wrong if it feels good.” Alexander Pope gave the classic explanation of what happens to society when vice is tolerated: “Vice is a monster of so frightful mien, as to be hated needs but to be seen; yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, We first endure, then pity, then embrace.”
