Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Book Banning
Today I was reading an article in the Las Vegas Review-Journal regarding reading a banned book today. This resonated with me deeply. I cannot express to you how wrong it is to ban books. Books allow us to learn, grow and become stronger members of society. We do not have to agree with the ideology that is being expressed in the book to learn something from it. I remember being horrified when I found out that a couple of my favorite books I read in elementary school were being banned in certain areas. The books were "The Witch of Blackbird Pond" and most recently "The Diary of Anne Frank." Both dealt with horrible periods in history, the Salem Witch Trials and the Holocaust. We cannot allow narrow minded people to control our views or rewrite history to suit their vision of what the world should be. Most especially not here in the United States where freedom of speech is one of our rights. If you do not feel that a particular book is suitable for particular ages in school curriculums then you do not teach them. That does not mean you ban them and remove them from local libraries.
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I find it ironic that somehow people forget we all have volition. Banning books is right up there with banning certain foods, drugs, activities, etc. Someone else always knows whats better for us. Ironically, those individuals have serious issues to contend with (as many of us do) and simply negate their moral obligation to deal with their problems by trying to control others.
ReplyDeleteIsn't there a little thing in the Constitution that relates to freedom of speech?