Not a First Ammendment Right Dear Editor,     Every business in Rapid City is regulated by the City. Many of the regulations are for public safety, some are for “quality of life.”     For public safety, the City can require businesses to have safe buildings, fire sprinklers, safe electrical systems, safe heating systems, paved parking lots, and even elevators. There are many other similar regulations.     For quality of life, the City requires certain landscaping, regulates sizes of signs, controls noise levels, among other rules.     Imagine if businesses claimed that dilapidated buildings, muddy parking lots, huge signs, or uncontrolled noise were their “free speech?”     For public safety and quality of life it is reasonable for the City to regulate Adult Oriented Businesses. Do you want the Rapid City area to be known for its several different AOB’s, or do you want Rapid City to be a safe place to raise a family?     If you want a safe place to live with a good quality of life, vote FOR the regulations of AOB’s on 8 April.     Mrs. Lois Ward SEX-ORIENTED BUSINESSES... TO REGULATE OR NOT TO REGULATE     Twice Rapid City has been declared the rape capitol of America. A group of concerned citizens began work to change the city's reputation.     There was NO regulation of Adult (sex) Oriented Businesses (A.O.B's) in Rapid City. Mayor Jerry Munson appointed a broad based task force to study, and propose if needed, some regulation for the A.O.B's. Ordinance NO. 3856 was drafted, debated in public hearings, and eventually passed unanimously by the city council. The A.O.B's then hired a petition circulator who gathered enough signatures to put Ordinance NO. 3856 before the people for a vote on April 8, 2003. The A.O.B.'s hope the Ordinance will be voted down. Does the regulation of these businesses violate their constitutional rights?     The A.O.B.'s main argument against the ordinance is that it violates their First Amendment rights. This argument that First Amendment rights are violated by Ordinance NO. 3856 does not stand up under thorough examination! The First Amendment says, nothing more and nothing less: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.     The A.O.B.'s cannot argue the establishment and free exercise clauses. The A.O.B.'s are indeed an establishment, but they are NOT an establishment of religion!     They cannot argue they will lose their freedom of speech. They have spoken freely in public hearings, and still speak freely!     They cannot argue they will lose their freedom of the press. TV, radio and newspaper press has covered both sides of the issue from the beginning. Even now, leading up to April 8th, they are allowed letters to the public in the Rapid City Journal.     They cannot argue that their right...peaceably to assemble is abridged by the ordinance. The ordinance DOES NOT CLOSE those businesses, NOR PROHIBIT assembling in them.     They cannot argue that they have been forbidden the right to petition the Government. They secured official petition signatures to put the ordinance on the April 8, 2003, ballot! Does the regulation of these businesses violate someone's right to choose?     The right to choose is not an open-ended privilege. One cannot choose any behavior that harms other citizens.     Once behind the wheel of an automobile on a public highway, a driver may not choose to drive in public in any way which causes harm to others. The driver's driving is regulated!     Hunters love to hunt, but Rapid City has a law against hunting inside city limits. No hunter may choose to hunt in this city because he has a right to hunt. If he chooses to hunt, he is regulated in his choice within the city limits, and even elsewhere.     Rapid City has ordinance regulations against citizens parking junk vehicles on their private property. I know, because our church was asked several years ago to remove an older bus, that had not been used in over two years, from the property. The old bus was sold to comply with the ordinance, which should have done much earlier!     Many people choose to smoke and drink. Smoking and drinking are free choices, but choices regulated in public places. One's right to choose does not eliminate all regulations!     If smoking and drinking can be regulated in Rapid City's public places and establishments, sex and sex-oriented activities can be regulated, regardless of one's right to choose!     Come April 8th, every registered voter may choose to vote or not to vote. That right is not abridged, but it is regulated. The voter must be a registered voter in Rapid City, and must vote only in designated places. Even our voting rights are regulated! Does the regulation of these businesses violate their moral rights?     We have heard, You cannot legislate morality! You cannot impose your morals on us! History would read very differently if President Abraham Lincoln had said, I cannot impose my moral values on other people. When President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, he imposed his moral values on the whole nation! Slave owners may have said to Mr. Lincoln, You cannot impose your moral values on us! We have the right to engage in the slave traffic! Not so, according to Mr. Lincoln's moral values.     Teddy Roosevelt said, To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society. He also said, There are those who believe that a new modernity demands a new morality. What they fail to consider is the harsh reality that there is no such thing as a new morality. There is only one morality. All else is immorality. There is only true Christian ethics over against which stands the whole of paganism. If we are to fulfill our great destiny as a people, then we must return to the old morality, the sole morality. And if we are to do that, then the church must prepare us for such a task. We accept Mr. Roosevelt's face on Mt. Rushmore, but will we accept his morals in our city? Churches can, and must, prepare the way by manifesting an example of high morality in the community.     Article VI, Section I, of the South Dakota Constitution, reads: The stability of a republican form of government depending on the morality and intelligence of the people, it shall be the duty of the Legislature to..... It is very clear from this constitutional statement that our republican form of government exists, depending on the morality and intelligence of the people! Morality is mandated by the South Dakota Constitution! Morality is always foundational! We must be a moral people in order to maintain our republican form of government. From the White House to the Town Hall of Rapid City, South Dakota, it is a fact that our Constitutional Republic will stand or fall, depending on the morality and intelligence of the people. RAPID CITY CITIZENS MUST CHOOSE!     Will Rapid City, referred to as the Star of the West, become a city whose Star shines through a stronger moral character, or will it be a city whose Star is dimmed by the reputation of łthe rape capitol˛ of America? If Rapid City citizens want a city where strong moral character thrives, they will vote for Rapid City Ordinance NO. 3856.