Kudos to the people of Dickinson County who are stepping up to fight the appearance of an adult superstore on Interstate 70 near Abilene. Perhaps residents of other Kansas communities along major highways will have the courage to follow suit.

A drive on I-70 through Missouri illustrates what the landscape can become if adult stores are allowed to proliferate. The situation is especially apparent at night, when gigantic “XXX” signs pop out at motorists from both sides of the interstate. Closer examination reveals smaller advertising for “totally nude dancers” and other attractions designed to entice guests to the establishments. It’s not a model Kansas should seek to emulate.

About 100 men from the Abilene area gathered recently to discuss what action could be taken to remove an establishment called the Lion’s Den from their midst. Using a biblical reference the group launched “Operation Daniel,” and plans to employ tactics that have proven effective in other communities.

Among those is to station teams of observers at the exit ramp leading to the Lion’s Den to report truck drivers’ presence at the store to their employers.

In an action apparently intended to be chivalrous, the leader of the meeting asked the women in attendance to leave as he described some of the sexually oriented material available at the superstore, according to a report in the Abilene Reflector-Chronicle. The action seems a bit patronizing to adult women who likely would be no more shocked by the material than the men in the audience, but it is, nonetheless, positive to see men taking the lead in the anti-pornography fight.

There are, of course, arguments being made about freedom of speech and preserving people’s rights to go where they want and do as they please. That freedom also extends to the rights of others to protest the presence of X-rated material in their communities.

It would be a shame if a drive across Kansas took on the same X-rated tone as the I-70 route through Missouri. Kansans have a right to demand better, and the people of Abilene are showing how it might be done.