i’m sitting here in the charlotte international airport witing for a flight to roanoke va – my dad is retiring after 34 years in service to the academy (whoo hoo!  yeah dad!) – and i logged on to their free wireless (gotta love it, free wireless) and upon being redirected to my personal site, found that their filter had decided that my own website wasn’t worth myself having access to it, because its ’sex education’.. yep, the neurotic musings of a first year phd student (of course, i’ve been blogging since ‘00, so it could be the neurotic musings of an activist, etc..) is now considered sex ed.

a couple of years ago i would have gotten all up in arms about it, and i kind of actually am a little miffed about it, but since i’m so exhausted after a day of travelling (and another 2- 3 hours left to go), i’m more amused.

but it is a sign of the times, eh?  or, a sign of the times in charlotte, nc.  i don’t come back to these parts very often – while the appalachains are the most beautiful mountains in the world, and the new river will always have large piece of my heart, it’s just not home.  but i am left to wonder if the blocking of my site is a sign of the political atmosphere around these parts or not.  or, does it really matter?

well, yes, because we must consider the kind of content we put up and we want potential students to seek out and use.  are filters like this going to filter out aids education content?  sex education, important courses for first, second and third world doctors wanting to educate patients and the public about sexually transmitted diseases?

i know, i’m not the first one to ask these kinds of questions, but that this is the first time i’ve been blocked form my own site causes me to write about it.

what will i do about this particular instance?  well, i’ve taken a screen capture, and at some point i’ll email the manufacturer and the charlotte international airport to let them know.  that this is an international airport causes concern, because they have made the effort to make things accessible through this handy dandy free wireless makes me think that they would want people to have access to not just those  things a commercial company deems appropriate.  or, at least i would hope that CLT would want that kind of access available.