BREAKING STORY!

It is reported on AM 700 WLW that Elyse Metcalf is in “critical condition” and is “fighting for her life”. The news I am getting is breaking but apparently there was a fire in her home last night. There are no further details at this time. Elyse is the proprietor of an adult store in Cincinnati, her store “Elyse’s Passion was raided last year by Hamilton County Prosecutors. Elyse took them on and won. In recognition of her efforts Adult Video News awarded her with the Reuben Sturman Award at this years AVN Award. The following was written around this time last year, I was trying to raise awareness of Elyse’s plight and goad the Free Speech Coalition into helping. Needless to say the Free Screech Cabal did “squat” but Elyse proved her worth in the end and the petty thieves at the Free Speech Coalition did thier best to ignore it.

Why Elyses Passion is Important

I have been asked why this particular case is of so much importance to me, I will answer that for you here. Elyse has a very small store, in a very conservative town, Cincinnati. Elyse wasn’t born into porn, she opened her store after a long stint as a court recorder. Elyse also sells novelties and books such as Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. Elyses Passion isnt a guady store with big neon lights advertising sex videos or anything like that. Elyse is not suckling the public teat, she runs an honest business, pays her taxes and is a productive member of society, her little store helps to provide jobs and income for many people up and down the food chain, from her suppliers to her landlord, and her tax dollars help to provide support for those who are suckling the public teat. All she expects is to make a modest income and to be left alone to do what she likes. She is not threatening anyones life, liberty, property or pursuit of happiness.

It seems, however, that the City of Cincinnati would like nothing more than to deprive Elyse of her liberty, her property and her pursuit of happiness. Why? All because she rents adult videos tapes to adults who want to see them. You see someone in Cincinnati has decided that he should be the person who determines what is OK for adults in Cincinnati to watch in the privacy of their own homes.

As is customary Elyse was offered a plea bargain, she turned it down. In a more unusual move she was then offered a second plea bargain, she turned that one down too. The second one would have left her with no criminal record and she would have paid a small fine. Many people, even those in the adult industry thought she should have taken the second offer. Elyse, however, knows a wolf in sheeps clothing when she sees one. The second offer would have left her open to more harrassment and more charges, pretty much at the will of the City. Elyse stood her ground and said “I haven’t done anything wrong.” Elyse certainly doesn’t make enough money at the store to retain a high priced first ammendment attorney like Lou Sirkin, but she contacted him and he took her case, he thinks it is winnable. Companies in the adult industry are helping to fund her defense. Elyse fully knows and understands what is at risk here, she knows that standing her ground for what she believes is right may cost her her freedom. She also knows that freedom is something you have to be willing to fight for.

Elyse has both friends and family members who have died fighting for OUR freedom. I have lost friends and family in that fight as well, so have many of you reading this. I have a friend who is an WWII veteran, he is black and he volunteered, indeed was proud to go and fight. Remember, when he fought in that war segregation was the law, he wasn’t allowed to eat in the same restaraunts or sleep in the same hotels as white people, he had to go someplace that took “his kind” but he was proud to serve his country. When I asked him about this he told me “I did it because it was the right thing to do, I had faith that the people of this country would eventually come to realize that as much as we are all different, we are all the same. I knew what America would become, I knew it in my heart. I am proud to say that I have seen that day arrive. Freedom is everyone’s responsibility and it is worth dying for.”

Men like this deserve respect and honor and to roll over and allow some petty tyrant city official from Cincinnati to abridge our God given freedom would be a slap in the face to everyone who has fought to keep our freedom intact. Elyse may be a small woman from middle America but Elyse has the kind of intestinal fortitude (read guts) to stand up and say “you can’t take my freedom, I will fight you for it.”

I know I speak for everyone in the industry when I wish Elyse a complete and speedy recovery. She is, in my opinion, a hero.