The Soapbox:
Big Brother really is watching us

So there I was, sitting in my seat next to a window, watching the world go by as my Amtrak Capitol train was speeding down the rails on its way back to Sacramento from Monterey. Imagine my surprise when one of the conductors, one Bill Preeze, leaned in from the aisle, and asked me to put my magazine away, because "I don't think it is appropriate." The magazine in question? The latest issue of "Playboy."

I was taken aback. I have been a reader of "Playboy" for almost 30 years (and yes, I do look at the pictures) and read the magazine in any number of places from buses to airliners to trains. In restaurants and seated at a park bench. This was the first time anyone asked me to put the magazine away. I have read it numerous times before on Amtrak's Capitol trains without so much as a second glance from conductors.

When asked why he thought it was not appropriate, Preeze explained there were children on the train. How the demographics of the train's passengers made the magazine more or less appropriate he did not explain.

I asked him if there had been any complaints about the magazine from the other passengers. There had not, Preeze just felt it was not appropriate reading material for a train with children on board.

Not being sure exactly how much authority a conductor on a federally operated train had, I put the magazine away.

But then, as the hills rolled by, I started thinking ó why should I have to put any legal reading material away because someone else thinks it is not appropriate.

I am sorry that Preeze is so uptight he fears what an accidental glance at picture of a naked woman might do to a child walking or running down the train aisle.

I am sorry that there are people who are more afraid of nudity than violence -- after all, a naked body never killed anyone that I know of.

There are many problems facing us in today's world that it strikes me as ironic that one man would be so concerned about the damage seeing that naked body might do ó especially since I hadn't even gotten to any of the pictures.

A spokesman for Amtrak, Dominick Albano, said he was unaware of any policy the train system had regarding reading material but said conductors had a "pretty free hand" in doing what was necessary in keeping order on the train. He would not comment on whether he felt reading "Playboy" jeopardized that order.

So, friends and neighbors, the next time you take the train watch what you read -- big brother, in the name of Bill Preeze, is watching you.