Date: Sat, 27 Jul 1996 21:27:30 -0400
From: Michael Betancourt <mwb2-AT-mosquito.com>


        Hi All,

Yesterday I got a phone call from the photolab that does my digital-to-film
transfers, Berry and Homer (in Philadelphia, ironically as you will see).
The woman who was supposed to do the transfers had seen my work and become
"very upset" about what she saw, with the result that they weren't going to
do the transfers.

My response was that they were censoring my work, and that this objection
made no sense, especially since they had done transfers of similar work in
the past four years on a number of occasions without any objections at that
time.

This is a case of one (1) woman deciding on her own that my work was
unacceptable, therefore the policy of this photolab was that they wouldn't
do my job. The only reson that the manager decided to do it was that they
had done work for me in the past that was similar. His (second) call to me
(after keeping me on hold for about 10 minutes) ended with a veiled threat:
I should take my work elsewhere in future.

I do not think I should do this. Here's why: this is essentially the same
situation as when a black woman refused to give up her bus seat, or a black
man sat at a lunch counter and demanded to be served. Berry and Homer is
running a business that offers services to anyone that walks in the door.
There is no statement in their literature that they will not do work for
people that their employees don't happen to like, and if they did it would
be illegal (at least in the US.)

The irony in this situation is two fold. First, they are located in
PHILADELPHIA, the site where the US constitution and Bill of Rights
Guaranting freedom from censorship were written. 
The second irony is even more recent, if not as great. The CDA was
overturned in Philadelphia less than 2 months ago...

Please let people know that BERRY AND HOMER PHOTOGRAPHIC LABORATORIES is
acting as self-appointed censor.

-- Michael Betancourt
                    E-mail: 	mwb2-AT-mosquito.com
 Index to Web Sites:	http://www.mosquito.com/~mwb2