----Lewiston's inveterate campaigner against pornography has taken up his sword again and he says he won't stop, no matter what.
''The longer we are silent the more we are going to see that type of stuff,'' Gary A. Greenfield said in an interview Friday.
''That's what drives me to do this ... and I am not going to stop either. It doesn't matter how many people join me,'' a determined Greenfield said at his house, which provides a stunning view of Lewiston and the mountains behind it.
It is almost as though he is maintaining a vigil.
Some four years ago Greenfield and his colleagues organized a boycott which made 11 stores at Lewiston-Clarkston swear off what Greenfield calls pornographic magazines and X-rated videotapes.
Some of them have, so to speak, fallen off the wagon since then, which may be one factor behind the rejuvenated campaign.
Within a month, Greenfield said, he hopes to have another boycott campaign under way and he has targeted 18 businesses at Lewiston-Clarkston which operate about 25 stores.
He intends to extend the boycott to other towns in the region also.
''We hope that a boycott will be sufficient, but I wouldn't rule out picketing,'' he said.
Greenfield, a medic with the Lewiston Fire Department, and his associates have in the past taken recourse to picketing. They organized picketing of the Ace of Hearts at Clarkston several times when it opened in 1986, Greenfield said.
The sex-oriented store and club is still open, but is beset by legal problems, most of which stem from criminal charges.
Managers of most stores targeted by Greenfield refused to comment on the proposed boycott.
Robert Coleman, owner of Lewiston's Coleman Oil Co., was more forthcoming. The company operates gas stations, one of which, Greenfield alleges, has pornographic magazines for sale.
''I respect his principles but I don't respect his harassing us,'' Coleman said Friday. ''I object to the manner in which he is trying to get us to do what he wants.''
Coleman also said that such a campaign may actually be counterproductive.
''By so doing he's creating publicity which exacerbates the problem that he is trying to correct,'' he said. ''It's free advertising for us which we really don't want.''
Coleman clarified that some magazines to which Greenfield objects are kept at the North Lewiston Dynamart because there is a demand for them there. But they are shielded, and are sold only to adults.
Fred Servatius, one of the owners of Servatius News Agency, the largest book distribution company in the region, indicated the campaign would have no effect on the company.
''We are not putting out anything we are going to stop circulating,'' he said.
And Lynn Wallace, business manager at the Lewiston Chamber of Commerce, indicated the chamber does not have a stance on the issue because it has never been brought up by businesses.
''I know he (Greenfield) had some businesses take magazines off the racks but I don't think it affected business,'' she said. ''It made the community more aware.''
Greenfield, who last year set up affiliation with the American Family Association as its Lewiston-Clarkston chapter, said his organization will provide ''concerned citizens'' with a list of stores and a boycotting strategy.
About 350 persons in the region subscribe to the AFA Journal and these, he hopes, will be at the core of his boycott movement.
Material circulated at an AFA meeting earlier this week, attended by five persons, advises people to first speak to the store manager.
The strategy then suggests writing letters and finally refusing to buy at the store.
''Those magazines, they promote statutory rape. They promote incest. They have encouraged that sex at any age is healthy. They have sought to tear down every traditional Christian value that promotes the typical family,'' Greenfield said. ''That kind of philosophy contributed to teenage pregnancy and sexual disease, like AIDS.''
He was particularly critical of Playboy magazine which, he said, even promoted legalizing marijuana and cocaine.
One reaction to his campaign, Greenfield said, is that people question his right to dictate what they should read or watch.
That, he says, is not the issue at all. He does not want his money to support businesses which sell magazines that support such philosophies.
''If they want to buy that stuff then let them get it through the mail. When they are out in the open they are making a statement that this stuff is accepted in the community,'' he says.
''It angers me. ... I am not going to be silent,'' Greenfield says, and the words ring oddly, like an oath taken in another era.
