My husband and I drove my granddaughter to her mother in Missouri recently. When we passed through St. Louis, 253 miles from Kansas City, we began to see the big billboards for strippers and adult bookstores before every exit. We couldn't believe that there were no other businesses advertised -- just the "adult entertainment" businesses.

We weren't sure we could leave our precious cargo in Missouri. Once we got off the freeway, it wasn't as bad, and the city she was in had none. It was a clean university town so we were relieved, and as we met the neighbors our fears were put to ease. They blasted the adult entertainment business. And the people that supported them? Neighbors had interesting names for them. ...

Some would say that Augusta's attempt to limit the adult entertainment here is un-American, but I see it as hypocrisy to do any less. How can we allow our 18-year-olds to go play in adult entertainment stores, then call people who visit those stores perverts, losers or the scum of the earth?

Is opening the X-Mart within the neighborhood of one of Augusta's biggest concentration of sexual offenders a choice for a brighter future? I just wonder how long there will be people to fight against this, or if my granddaughter will one day come with her child to visit us and say, "What's with all those signs on Bobby Jones Expressway? What ever happened to the Bible Belt?"

But then, why should we get off the couch, sacrifice a little time and effort and do something for the future? Isn't that what our government is for?