It's silly season in Carmel:
The Carmel City Council considers a controversial resolution Monday night supporting a child-safe community standard for the city. The resolution would ask businesses to put away anything from magazine covers to lingerie out of the view of children. Proponents say it would make the city more wholesome, but critics charge it legislates morality.
It began as a campaign last fall to cover up Victoria Secret's lingerie-clad mannequins, called too revealing by Lori Baxter, a Carmel mother.
"The more sexual images you give young people the more likely it is for them to have sex," Baxter said.
The store replaced the lingerie with pajamas. Since then, Baxter, has lobbied Carmel City Council members to support a resolution encouraging business owners to place anything that might be considered suggestive or offensive out of the view of children.
"For the children" trumps just about everything, including "you can't legislate morality" and "stop being such prudes." Of course, no matter what Carmel does, its children will continue to be overwhelmed with sexual images on network TV, cable, in music and movies and through the Internet. If the council really wants to make a dent, perhaps it should ban electricity. That would give us an alignment between the forces of morality on the right and the forces of environmentalism on the left. We can all huddle in our dark, warm living rooms, saving the Earth with our children safely by our sides.
