My article about Burton Snowboards' controversial boards was published today in the Boston Globe, on the front of the Metro section. The Globe renamed its City & Region section a while back to Metro, so even though it sounds like it should just be about Boston, the section also covers regional stories from other New England states.
The boards have been out for a few months, and while the firestorm has raged in Vermont since November, the boards might gain wider attention once the ski season starts in earnest this month and people start seeing the boards on the slopes. Just from conversation with friends outside of Vermont, it seems like a relatively unknown issue outside of the state.
But what I found so interesting about the boards is the debate among Vermont liberals about free speech. Vermonters are traditionally supporters of free speech, but these boards touched a nerve that has split the ACLU-ers from the family-focused liberals. Some folks think it's an age issue: that older (i.e. parents of small children and anyone more advanced in years) are against it while younger people, because they are more used to sexual images, don't see the problem.
