"Free At Last"
If we’ve heard it once, we’ve heard it a thousand times: “Prostitutes are people too”. As an advocate for free legalized prostitution and a part-time male prostitute myself, I am here today to discuss the implications related to illegalized prostitution. The act of prostitution itself does not violate one’s rights nor does it directly harm anyone else. However, the illegalization of the act of prostitution not only makes it a crime, but also creates a multitude of ancillary crimes in the process. This information is important and relevant to all us, not just as students, but also as future leaders of this great nation. Therefore, today, I will show: 1st – dramatic and significant change is needed to restore a peaceful America, 2nd – legalizing prostitution and making it free will eliminate crime around the country, and 3rd – and finally, free and legalized prostitution offers a world of safety and security where children can once again be left unattended to play outside. We’ll see that serious change is needed to prevent a criminal implosion in our society.
According to a July 25th 2006 article in the Arizona Republic, the impacts of illegal prostitution include: sexual exploitation, drug dealing and use, increased incidences of sexually transmitted disease, infiltration of criminals for the purpose of profiting from drug dealing, prostitution, money laundering, ect., and negative impacts on quality of life, property values, and neighborhoods due to plight, litter, etc. This article also states that these impacts have been documented in multiple studies around the nation. An August 13th 2006 article in the San Antonio Express-News supports this assertion by saying, today, prostitution remains a community problem linked to exploitation, violence, and other illegal activity that police spend a great deal of time and resources trying to control. However, it’s today’s laws that only perpetuate the problem, ultimately creating more crimes than those they were created to prevent. From this diagram you can see how something as simple as the act of child shoplifting can be tied to prostitution. Now that’s pretty frightening, wouldn’t you agree?
From a report in the April 1987 edition of the Hastings Law Journal, the average arrest, conviction, and incarceration costs for prostitution amount to nearly $2000.00 per arrest. Cities spend an average of 7.5 million dollars on prostitution control every year, ranging from one million dollars in Memphis, to 23 million dollars in New York. Today, with inflation, those costs are more than doubled and it’s the American taxpayer that is absorbing the more than 750 million dollars a year necessary to handle all those arrests. According to a more recent article in the July 7th 2006 Arizona Republic, “Half the inmates of our jails are guilty of victimless crimes. The cost to keep them there represents an amount larger than the entire income of all but five countries on the face of the Earth.” Legalizing prostitution is more than a means to an end, doing so we’ll reach the furthest levels of crime in our nation.
The same Arizona Republic article discusses the idea that legal activities can be controlled, kept safe. On the other hand, Illegal activities cannot be controlled and are not only unsafe, but often deadly. Once a government outlaws an activity, it cedes the right and the ability to control it. In a world that contains AIDS, outlawing prostitution, rather than controlling, it is the height of irresponsibility. Legalization of prostitution doesn’t only make sense it saves cents. The only way to deal with the crime issues caused by prostitution is to legalize it – and then, make it free to all those in need. In an interview conducted with Sal Paradise, a regular patron of prostitutes and call girls, on November 20th, 2006, He explains, that if you know what you’re doing, and you can find a call girl/guy who has both a clean medical record and a clean physical appearance, the process of soliciting a prostitute can be a very rewarding experience, setting one’s mind at ease and allowing them to relieve some of the stress and tension brought on by their busy lives. Instead of an over-inflated-badly-planned-budget to prevent prostitution, a budget should be created to use those same monies to employ responsible individuals to operate government-subsidized cathouses. Now, I’m sure we’re all thinking the same two things, “Why in the world should the government be in involved and for goodness sakes why should it be free?” Aside from the fact that random free sex with strangers should be an inalienable right for all men and women, the act of making it free is based on the basic economic principles of supply and demand. By making it free we create a surplus of potential sexual activity, thereby decreasing its overall demand. If it were not free, the opportunity for competition both in the general public and private/underground would exist, thus subverting a successful attempt to control the market on sexual related business. Creating a government workplace works two fold by offering prostitutes a safe and hospitable work environment, while at the same time, providing benefits that cover prescription medications for ailing backs, headaches, and repetitive stress injury that would otherwise be treated with illegal substances like crack cocaine or crystal methamphetamine. This is turn helps improve the cities economic welfare by decreasing the unemployment rate and acts as an outreach helping those, who according to a September 27, 2006 article in the South Bend Tribune, fall into a drug-lifestyle and need to spend time somewhere other than behind bars.
Sure there are many a naysayer out there who could try to convince you that free legalized prostitution is immoral, but may I remind you that the first time man attempted to retrieve milk from the teat of a cow, it was thought immoral, or the first time toothpaste was used, or even man’s first attempt at flight. More often than not, change is met with resistance, and the case of free legalized prostitution is no different. Ten years from now, students a lot like ourselves will sit in these same seats, shocked to learn from an informative speech, that at one time prostitution was not only something you had to pay for, but was illegal to boot. To the naysayer I say, “it’s all fun and games until a prostitute gets her arm lopped off”, and according to Ireland’s September 17th 2006 article in The Sunday Herald, that’s exactly what happened. The article goes on to say that it’s common for prostitutes to be robbed, beaten, kidnapped, raped, tortured and maimed. We have a chance to change our communities and once and for all put a stop to prostitute abuse.
Today we all have the opportunity to affect change at a time when our nation needs it the most. According to a Collegiate Times article on September 20, 2006, prostitution has been illegal in the United States since the 1920’s. It’s illegal to become a prostitute, solicit sex, or to operate a brothel. However, these laws have done little to curb the demand. There is a better way and it’s time to make a change. It’s time to say we’re fed up with the criminal world we live in. It’s time we accept our responsibility to our nation and to ourselves. By signing this petition, we can turn the now ethereal dream of free government-subsidized prostitution into a practical reality. If you’re not with us, you’re against us and if you don’t sign the petition today, the terrorists have won.
Today, I’ve discussed a very important issue that can stand to be ignored no longer. Prostitution and its current legal restraints need be adapted to fit our modern time. No longer can we stand by and let crime happen in front of us. If we want our neighborhoods to be clean again and rid of drugs, crime, theft, and hoodlums, we have to fight for them. Today is the day for freedom. Sign this petition and exclaim with me the prophetic words: “Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, it’s free at last.”