Book banning in America is a bogus issue used by leftists to tear down our American institutions and denigrate our traditional values
Last week was Banned Books Week, and the social libertines were out in full force. From the website:
Banned Books Week is the only national celebration of the freedom to read. It was launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries. [...]
People challenge books that they say are too sexual or too violent. They object to profanity and slang, and protest against offensive portrayals of racial or religious groups--or positive portrayals of homosexuals.
Yes. Nice summary. I don't want these adult perverts peddling homosexual propaganda, anti-Christian screeds, and sex and violence to my children. I am also against censorship. The two views are not incompatible...
See how liberalism works?
They take the legitimate issue of enforcing community standards, conflate it with book banning, and conjure the specter of America as Nazi Germany censoring, burning and silencing.
The reality is more benign
By the organization's own admission, the top 10 most-challenged books are challenged in a school or public library environment because they are not age appropriate. And most are trash anyway, not a classic among them.
No one is challenging the right to publish and peddle trash in this country, a casual glance around proves that. This is about parents maintaining control over what is introduced to their children.
If a teacher introduced pornography and graphic battlefield narratives to my first grader and I protested, I would be considered pro-censorship to these people.
I love books and I do not want my government committing First Amendment violations. And guess what? Removing a book from schools or public libraries based upon community standards is not censorship.
An author has no legal right to have her book placed in a school or community library, and community members have no right to find there any book they desire. Indeed, if it were otherwise, every public library would be legally required to stock every book; a clearly unreasonable standard.
Judgments must be made. Some books are in and some are out.
Removing or restricting a book from a public library does not silence the author and it does not prevent people from acquiring the book by some other means. This is about the right time and proper place.
Parents and responsible adults have a duty to introduce only age-appropriate material to our youngsters. I decide what's appropriate for my children, not some hippie pedo-perv or oversexed woman marketing her teen sex fantasies to high schoolers.
Want to talk censorship? When is the last time someone was allowed to read a bible or say a prayer out loud in a public school?
http://bannedbooksweek.org/index.html
Time - Banned Books
