Anti-pornography activists are pushing for public awareness and national attention this week.

The week of Oct. 29 to Nov. 5 has been declared Pornography Awareness Week and supporters are sporting white ribbons, standing for "decency" and "purity."

In October, Rep. Jere Strittmatter (R-Lancaster) introduced a resolution to the state House recognizing Pornography Awareness Week. It was approved by the House to "make people aware of the danger pornography is to everyone."

The campaign began in Butler, PA, where Norma Norris organized the first white ribbon campaign in 1987 and called it White Ribbon Against Pornography (WRAP). Since then, a resolution to commemorate the week has been introduced and approved by the House in Pennsylvania each year.

Peggie Miller, President of Good News Together We Stand an organization that mobilizes support against pornography, said the key to the campaign is creating awareness in the community and extinguishing the mentality that "hard core porn" is freedom of speech.

"Exploiting women and children, especially, is not a freedom of speech," Miller said.

And Miller hopes that by bombarding the 2000 presidential candidates with letters and information, candidates will address obscenity laws, an issue that has not been widely addressed by candidates, Miller said.

Morality in Media, a national, non-profit organization that focuses on obscenity and broadcast indecency law is encouraging people to write to candidates about pornography.

"We encourage people to support a vigorous enforcement of obscenity laws on a state and federal level," Pat McGrath, director of media relations of Morality in Media said.

McGrath also said that WRAP is a national campaign whose chief concern is a lack of obscenity law enforcement and what McGrath called the "benign neglect" of obscenity law in federal courts.

"There is just a focus on child porn, which is a comparatively tiny segment of the audience, in the face of this huge industry," McGrath said.

McGrath also said enforcement of obscenity law has been on the decline.

Miller said that even though outlets for pornography are accessible and not necessarily restricted to the full legal extent of the law, the 16-year crusade she has waged has not gone unnoticed.

"There are always people who will say it's our right, but it's our right to say when we don't like it," Miller said.