March 28, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

Stores aren’t censors

In the Sept. 17 issue of the Bangor Daily News a letter from Cindy Sanborn waves words like “censorship” and “banning” around. Why is she doing this? Because the owners of certain stores have decided what they are going to sell, and what they aren’t.

Isn’t it a store owner’s right to decide what his or her store will sell, and what it won’t? She mentions Shop ‘n Save, Wal-Mart and IGA. Well, unless I’m mistaken, none of these stores offers pornography. I can’t go into Wal-Mart and buy a steak any more than I can go into Shop ‘n Save and buy a fishing pole. And yet Sanborn would have us believe that someone other than ourselves is controlling what we read because they don’t offer tabloids.

The government has not declared tabloids illegal. That would be an infingement on our rights. Let’s not misunderstand this. To support stores and shops who carry what we want to read is within our rights. We don’t have the right to accuse store owners of censorship for decisions they make as far as what they sell in their own stores. These shop owners have rights as well. John S. Skinner Jr. Holden


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