Page 10___ ' _ ;Wednesday, October 29,1997
f
Ryan Soderlin/DN
A RESPONSE to nude photographs ef children in a book, Donna Bockpvea’S July bookstore outburst is credited by
syndicated radio talk show host Randall Terry with inspiring a nationwide picket ef Barnes & Noble Booksellers
last weekend.
Nude
By Bret Schulte
Senior Reporter
As a day care provider and mother of four,
Lincoln resident Donna Bockoven has made a
i ; life out df caring for children.
That quiet life has grown into a personal and
public crusade against the national chain, Barnes
& Noble Booksellers, the stock of which includes
art photography books depicting nude children.
Calling it “obvious child pornography,”
Bockoven vows to fight.
“At some point in time we have to take a stand
on something to believe in,” Bockoven said.
“This is my stand.”
Dismissed by Lancaster County Attorney
Gary Lacey as legal, the disputed photographs
are now raising the ire of Nebraska Attorney
General Don Stenberg, who wishes to rewrite
state statutes to make such pictures punishable
under child pornography laws.
Such censorship - says Matt Lemieux, execu
•, tive director of the American Civil Liberties
Union of Nebraska - might be a violation of Fust
Amendment rights and must be in alignment with
decisions made by the U.S. Supreme Court on the
matter.
“While the state can regulate child pornogra
phy, it can not do it in a way that will sweep with
in protected speech,” Lemieux said.
Bockoven’s determination to get such art
tl/Arlr niltl QU/aH ic on Avomnlo nf nln cm
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At some point in time we
have to take a stand on
something to believe in. „„
This is my stand.”
Donna Bockoven
protester
been under fire by Christian groups denouncing
the work as child pornography.
In fact, Bockoven said she first learned of
Sturges and his work while listening to a pro
gram, “Focus on the Family,” on local Christian
radio station KLCV, 88.5 FM. The syndicated
broadcast described Sturges’ work and urged
people to investigate local Barnes & Noble
stores, which frequently carry the collections of
Sturges and other photographers.
Motivated by the talk show, Bockoven said
she confronted store management on the content
of the art books. Feeling her comments were
ignored by store employees, she tore the book
apart in full view of several customers and
employees, she said.
well as out of state. Talk began about the forma
tion of a trust fund to pursue further action .
against the store and continue picketing and
protesting.
„ Wurth said radio talk show host Randall Terry
of “Randall Terry Live” - impressed by
a<Uions - encoutagedhis listeners to '%
follow h# lead: Enter your local Bamea & Noble
and literally tear apart “The Last Day of
Summer.”
According to Wurth, Terry first read about
Bockoven in a magazine. After speaking with her
on the phone, he prompted his listeners to emu
late her actions.
Many have. . ..
Following Bockoven’s suit, activists from
“California to New Hampshire” have engaged in
similar protests, Wurth said. Until the national
boycott, as many as 60 similar protests - either
acts of vandalism or picketing - have occurred,
none resulting in “serious” prosecution by local
authorities, he said.
“No one has been forced to buy the book
(after vandalizing it), and I don’t know of anyone
doing any serious jail time,” he said.
But such tactics are harmful and absolutely
illegal, Lemieux said.
“It violates the law,” he said. “It is the destruc
tion of somebody else’s property.”
Sowing the seeds
The list of disputed art work has grown from
Sturges’ “The Last Day of Summer” to include
bis two other pictorial collections as well as
books by David Hamilton and Sally Mann.
Although Bockoven didn’t take part in any of
the protests promoted by Randall Terry, Wurth
said her solo act of “courage” was the seed for the
growing crusade.
“She directly started the national protest,” he
said. “It was her action that brought this to our
attention, and from there and also ‘Focus (on the
Family’) it has taken national importance.”
Entailing 50 U.S. cities, including Pittsburgh,
New York and Omaha, the protest was “an
absolute success,” said Chris Finch, a Loyal
Opposition volunteer.
In response to the recent dispute, Condello
issued a formal statement outlining his store’s
policy about its role as a retailer:
“We do not feel that we have the right as a
retailer to censor the reading taste of the public.
We do however, in all cases, follow community
standards as is expressed through federal, state
and local legislation in regard to the products we
sell and the contents of these products.
Please see BOOKS on 11
i aon i ieei u s ireeaom oi expression wnen
it uses children,” Bockoven said in August.
Employees at Barnes & Noble promptly
called local authorities, who cited Bockoven for
vandalism and forced her to pay for the damaged
book.
But her outburst did not go unheeded.
Although she received a citation by the
Lincoln Police Department, the book was placed
under an investigation headed by Sgt. A1 Bemdt
of the Technical Division Team.
Do unto others?
Bob Condello, Barnes & Noble manager,
said Bockoven’s actions in the store were inex
cusable and hardly Christian.
“She frightened my employees, and the cus
tomers were also scared,” Condello said. “We
have avenues that she could take in the govern
ment. Why attack your local bookstore? You have
to go to the source; we are hot the source for that
book.”
Meanwhile, Bockoven gained national recog
nition for her impassioned act in the aisles of
Barnes & Noble.
Beginning with support from fellow church
members and friends, Bockoven soon began
receiving calls and mail from across Nebraska as
trend in American politics, he said.
“What is disturbing is it seems like there is a
vigilante censorship movement around the coun
try,” Lemieux said.
In the beginning
As a solo act of civil disobedience by an
angry mother, Bockoven tore apart a photogra
phy book in the Lincoln Barnes & Noble, 5150 0
St, on July 20. The campaign against the nation
al chain continued last weekend with a nation
wide picket promoted by the syndicated
Christian radio program “Randall Terry Live”
and organized by affiliated activist group, Loyal
Opposition.
“The original impetus (for the nationwide
picket) was Donna Bockoven,” said Steve Wurth,
program manager and spokesman for Loyal
Opposition.
Last summer, Bockoven shocked fellow cus
tomers and outraged store management when she
tore apart the book, “The Last Day of Summer,”
by Jock Sturges. Featuring photographs of naked
adults, adolescents and children on the nude
beaches of France, the 1993 collection has long
