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Banned Books Awareness: “…And the Earth Did Not Devour Him”

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Texas-born Tomás Rivera’s coming-of-age story of a Mexican boy’s life in a migrant family in the 1940s and 1950s, with its themes of family life and tensions, is apparently too much for the parents of a Clarke County seventh-grader and they want the book banned.

They demanded that the Clarke County Board of Education overturn Superintendent Philip Lanoue’s decision not to remove the award-winning book from an Athens, Georgia school.

In an email detailing the complaint, Deputy Superintendent Noris Price stated, “We think the themes speak directly to many of our students. We suggest that if teachers use this book, to include a permission slip along with it so parents are aware of potential language issues or violence.”

Such a compromise is not satisfactory to the parents of the student, though, according to a formal “request for reconsideration of material” they filed in April.

In that complaint, the parents argue that “any possible value is lost with offensive language,” such as a profanity-laced outburst from a man frustrated by unjust treatment and conditions migrant workers endure- in good times, migrant pay is $15 a day for adults, half that for children. “At the impressionable age of middle schoolers, purposely exposing them to this language may seem like an endorsement of it,” (sic) the complaint contended.

Please, I heard worse language sitting in study hall.

Lanoue wrote to the parents on May 9th to say the book would remain available to students with parental consent.

“This decision is based on the recommendation that one paragraph does not overpower the other literary elements that (Rivera’s) book can offer our students,” he said.

The son of Spanish-speaking migrant workers, Rivera would later become an author, poet, college professor, and administrator- a career that culminated in becoming chancellor of the University of California at Riverside when he died in 1984 at the age of 48.

 “…y no se lo tragó la tierra”- translated into English variously as “This Migrant Earth” or “…and the Earth Did Not Devour Him” won the first Quinto Sol literary award in 1970. A California publisher, to encourage and promote Chicano authors, established the award. A movie adaptation of the novel was released in 1995.

The Clarke County school board was scheduled to hear the appeal at its regular monthly meeting last Wednesday.

At the first sign of controversy, they caved. They didn’t even attempt to delay the matter by assigning it to a committee for investigation, or gaining community or parent insight. They simply tucked their tails between their legs and voted in a half-hearted motion to “urge Superintendent Lanoue to reconsider” the logical compromise of giving informed parents the opportunity of opting out and instead just removing the book completely.

We all know what it means when the higher-ups want you to “reconsider” something- they have their eye on you and the pressure is on to change your mind so that you end up the bad guy and they save face.

This sets a very bad precedent.

If a school board so quickly adds an agenda item upon request from a single individual or family, what’s next? It’s clear that anything a parent objects to or has an issue with goes straight to the board level for immediate response, where the powers that be cower to public fear and sheepishly consent to demands without so much as a candid debate.

David Huff, vice president of the school board, was one of two members to oppose the ban.

He said that the board should be focusing on bigger issues, such as improving graduation rates, cutting-edge technology, and the future of education, not short-term political distractions.

He’s absolutely right.

Once you start obsessing over individual words and paragraphs and getting caught up in scrutinizing class reading lists just to satisfy the whims and insecurities of individual parents you’re micromanaging your teaching staff and taking attention away from more important matters like planning and policies that are beneficial for all schools.

I’m not saying that the voice of these parents doesn’t matter or that their concerns don’t have merit, but there’s more than one child in any given school.

What of those other parents? Don’t they get a say in the matter? In fact, if that’s how it’s going to be, just remove the teachers altogether and have the parents dictate curriculum for their children and yours. Soon classrooms will be a bickering minefield of parents. Too many hands in the cookie jar, as it were. Yeah, that’s logical.

Why stop there? How about they decide on what color the hallways are painted, how many bike racks go in front of each door- or which door, and what brand of toilet to install in the bathroom.

Banning books might seem like an easy way to avoid controversy and attention, but all it really does is open a can of worms that slowly eats away at democracy and free-choice.

So, where does it end?

** Author’s Note: In another on-going incident of censorship, the book has also been included in the many titles remove in Arizona as part of that state’s ban on books dealing with ethnic studies, which sparked outrage and “caravan” events around the country, known as Librotraficante, aimed at smuggling books into Tucson schools.

For more information on the Banned Books Awareness and Reading for Knowledge project and the complete list of titles covered, please visit the official website at http://bbark.deepforestproductions.com/

Sources: Athens Banner-Herald
© 2013 R. Wolf Baldassarro/Deep Forest Productions

Banned Books Awareness: “Captain Underpants”

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Most of us aren’t surprised by “Fifty Shades of Grey” being the fourth most-challenged book of 2012, but would you expect a children’s book to make number one?

Dav Pilkey’s “Captain Underpants” has been repeatedly banned or challenged due to concerns over offensive language and charges of being “unsuited for age group.”

“It’s pretty exciting to be on a list that frequently features Mark Twain, Harper Lee, and Maya Angelou,” Pilkey said in a recent statement to the Huffington Post. “But I worry that some parents might see this list and discourage their kids from reading [it], even though they have not had a chance to read the books themselves.”

The Office for Intellectual Freedom received 464 challenges last year- a 25 percent jump from 2011, but still low compared to the 1980s and ‘90s.

The “Captain Underpants” books have long been debated among parents and educators. Some praise the books because they encourage boys to read, others criticize them for having toilet humor and an irreverent attitude; the title character is a superhero created by two fourth graders about their cantankerous principal, Mr. Krupp.

The series’ premise is a simple one. It follows the adventures of two mischievous class clowns, George Beard and Harold Hutchins, who have inadvertently turned grumpy Mr. Krupp into a tighty-whitey-wearing, cape-bearing superhero. With help from the boys, he defends the world from evil characters such as Professor Poopypants, Dr. Diaper, the Naughty Cafeteria Ladies, and the Wicked Wedgie Woman.

The boys are also constantly pulling off silly pranks, such as turning a sign that says, “Please Wash Your Hands after Using the Toilet” into one that reads “Please Wash Your Hands in the Toilet.”

“I don’t see these books as encouraging disrespect for authority. Perhaps they demonstrate the value of questioning authority,” Pilkey said. “Some of the authority figures in the books are villains. They are bullies and they do vicious things.”

Pilkey said his semi-autobiographical characters are based in part on teachers and principals he had between second and fifth grade- some of whom were villains who got away with it because they were authority figures.

“None of the children in my school, including me, thought to question them,” he said. “So, I do feel there is real value in showing kids that not all authority figures are good or kind or honorable.”

The president of Scholastic’s trade division, Ellie Berger, said in a statement that the appearance of Captain Underpants on the 2012 ALA list coincides with the publication of Dav Pilkey’s first new book in six years and the series’ return to national bestseller lists. Both, she says, are evidence that this bestselling series continues to inspire a love of reading (and underpants) for a new generation of kids.

The series has been a mainstay at the top of the list of formal complaints filed with libraries or schools requesting that the books be removed because of inappropriateness for over a decade.

Some notable incidents include the Riverside Unified School District in California and the school superintendent of the Maple Hill School in Naugatuck, Connecticut who sought to ban the series in 2001 due to concerns that it caused unruly behavior among children.

By 2002, it was the sixth most frequently challenged book according to the American Library Association.

In 2003 it was banned for insensitivity and being “unsuited to age group,” as well as for “encouraging children to disobey authority.”

Offensive language and modeling bad behavior were the top reasons for challenges to the series in 2005 and, in 2006, it was challenged for anti-family content, being unsuited to age group, and violence.

Three 17-year-old girls were told to leave New York’s Long Beach High School in 2006 when they showed up on Superhero Day dressed as the Captain.

The girls wore beige leotards and nude stockings under white briefs and red capes, but Principal Nicholas Restivo wasn’t laughing. He said he knew that they weren’t naked, but that it “appeared that way,” so he sent them home to change.

One of the girls, honor student Chelsea Horowitz, said that she didn’t understand the fuss. “They’re not see-through or anything.”

In spite of the ongoing controversy, the widely popular book series that began in 1997 has grown to include 10 titles and 3 spin-offs and won a Disney Adventures Kids’ Choice Award in 2007. DreamWorks Animation acquired rights to the series to make an animated feature film adaptation.

Captain Underpants has battled talking toilets and the infamous Professor Poopypants, but in the end his most challenging arch-nemesis seems to be adults with no sense of humor.

 

For more information on the Banned Books Awareness and Reading for Knowledge project and the complete list of titles covered, please visit the official website at http://bbark.deepforestproductions.com/

Sources: The Huffington Post, Marshall University, American Library Association, NBC News, New York Sun
© 2013 R. Wolf Baldassarro/Deep Forest Productions

Banned Books Awareness: “Persepolis”

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The United States’ third-largest school district, Chicago Public Schools, denies that it banned the book, saying that it “only removed copies from classrooms.” They can euphemize it any way they like, but it’s still censorship.

Labeling the graphic novel as “inappropriate,” CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett also ordered mandatory training for any high school teacher who wishes to continue using the illustrated story of Marjane Satrapi growing up in revolutionary Iran “due to the powerful images of torture in the book,” she stated in an email sent on March 13th to all CPS principals.

The CPS Office of Communications has refused to explain to the public or the press how this incident took place, why Persepolis has suddenly become controversial after being read by thousands of teachers and students since its publication, and has even refused to confirm that the censorship order had gone out at all. Luckily, for you, my dear readers, you can view a screenshot of the email here.

This just so happens- perhaps coincidentally, perhaps not- to also come on the eve of a massive closing of many of the district’s schools.

Satrapi, who is in Germany, criticized the district for pulling a book that has been approved for use in their schools for nearly a decade and for requiring “special training” for teachers. “For me, the worst in all of that is it’s absolutely the biggest insult to the intelligence of the teachers,” she said last week to the Chicago Sun Times.

She has visited Chicago several times, including a 2004 trip when she signed copies of Persepolis at some CPS schools; so Satrapi couldn’t believe problems arose in the district saying, “Even in Texas I didn’t have trouble with [it].”

The book is Satrapi’s illustrated recollection as a child and teenager during the Iranian Revolution; the 2007 animated film version won awards and critical acclaim.

On its own website, CPS even lists Persepolis as a good resource in the 2012-2013 Literacy Content Framework for seventh graders, along with Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street; also listed is Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre for 11th graders.

So what changed?

The book was removed after agreeing with a complaint from a teacher and principal in the Austin-North Lawndale network.

Lane Technical High school students waved signs along Western Avenue after school on March 15th, chanting, “No more banned books!” and “Let us read!” as they stood amid freezing rain. Several said they had already read Persepolis as seventh graders.

No parents have complained about the book either, according to Valerie Mason, who has taught Persepolis at Lane Tech for the last five years to 11th and 12th graders. In fact, many parents have asked to borrow copies after talking with their children about the graphic novel.

Student Katie McDermott didn’t see the language or images as problematic because the class had a guide for discussions.

“If we don’t create opinions, we won’t have individualism,” McDermott said. “If (students) can’t voice themselves, then we won’t have a country that’s individualistic,” said the 18-year-old, who helped organize the student protest.

Junior Matthew Wettig even contacted Satrapi for the school paper, The Lane Warrior.

“I didn’t know how she could possibly know about it,” he said. “So I just thought not only it’s my duty as a human being but as a journalist to shed light to her on the situation.”

Members of the American Library Association and the Freedom to Read Foundation joined the protest.

The Chicago-based ALA, in a letter to Byrd-Bennett, Chicago Board of Education President David Vitale, and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, expressed its ethical and legal concerns regarding the situation and asked for an explanation for the policy change.

The Chicago Teachers Union also expressed its surprise over the ban.

“The only place we’ve heard of this book being banned is in Iran,” CTU financial secretary Kristine Mayle wrote in a statement. “We understand why the district would be afraid of a book like this, because it’s about questioning authority, class structures, racism, and gender issues.”

According to additional comments to the CTU’s press release, the district is now claiming that Persepolis is banned “only from seventh grade classrooms but will be available in school libraries,” but the hidden catch is that 160 of its schools don’t have libraries- “and they know that,” said CTU spokeswoman Stephanie Gadlin.

For more information on the Banned Books Awareness and Reading for Knowledge project and the complete list of titles covered, please visit the official website at http://bbark.deepforestproductions.com/

Sources: Chicago Sun Times, Daily KOS
© 2013 R. Wolf Baldassarro/Deep Forest Productions

Banned Books Awareness: Censorship is really about an escape from the truth

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TwainLiterature marks the times. Whether an epic historical fiction or a dime store yarn, a novel reflects the time in which it is published as much as it does the period it is set in.

The intricacy and subject matter of the literature we enjoy also evolves with us as we learn and grow; from the days of A Cat in the Hat, through A Wrinkle in Time, to Tom Sawyer, Harry Potter, and beyond to when, as adults, we can look fondly at those stories from our youth while we enthrall ourselves in the latest whodunit by John Grisham, or peer into the saucy side of life with Fifty Shades of Grey.

The Harry Potter series, for example, grew to become more complex with each new title. The characters, the challenges, and the themes evolved along with the reader through the years at Hogwarts building to the grand climax. Those who were fortunate to grow up alongside the release of each book hold a special affinity for the series.

So how would those readers, many of whom are now young adults, feel if someone came along and decided to start rewriting the series with the red pen of political correctness?

You see, all of the titles mentioned so far in this column have one thing in common- they’ve all been censored or banned.

Imagine spending a snowy afternoon comfortably under a blanket, coffee at the side, and ready to embrace yourself in the Adventures of Tom Sawyer once again. It’s a timeless classic enjoyed both as a kid and as an adult. Unforgettable scenes such as when Tom swindles out of painting Aunt Polly’s fence by convincing everyone foolish enough to walk by that it’s an honor to spend a Saturday that way was just genius and I would wonder if I would get away with something like that. Not only did he get out of doing the work himself, but he also profits from it, winning a pocketful of such riches as a dead rat on a string, a half-eaten apple, a knife handle, and four pieces of orange peel.

Hey, don’t knock it. As a boy, I would have been happy with that kind of loot.

But just as you’re about to smile at the scene of Tom’s payoff you notice something that shocks your brain out of the 1840’s and back to the sad world that is 2013. You read it again just to be sure, and you come to the realization that this edition has been marred by the dreaded red pen of censorship. This edition’s description of the enslaved boy, Jim, has been changed to “Aunt Polly’s little helper.”

You have to be kidding me. It’s not like Jim had a choice in the matter or even took enjoyment out of “helping” Aunt Polly.

The editors of this edition have taken offense to Twain’s description of Jim as “a small colored boy” and the various uses of the word “nigger” by omitting them completely and replacing them with bland terms one would expect to hear on a local channel’s broadcast of The Breakfast Club at 1 pm on a Saturday: “I’m a hot dog? No, you’re a hot dog.” It just don’t have the same emotional depth, does it?

What’s next? Are they going to walk into the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence and slap a pair of shorts on Michelangelo’s statue of David?

They do realize that Tom Sawyer was written and set in the mid 1800’s, right?

Being close-minded and hypocritical in 2013 does not erase the fact that people were chained and held as property, forced to work in unsanitary and inhospitable conditions in a land that was supposed to be the home of the free and the brave.

Margaret Garner fled Kentucky with her family to Ohio, a “free” state; but thanks to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, owners could cross into such states and take their “property” back. Garner and her children were trapped in a house near Cincinnati, but before the plantation owners could get their hands on Garner’s 2-year-old daughter, she cut the girl’s throat with a knife because it’s better to die free than live as a slave.

Garner became the fictional Sethe in Toni Morrison’s Pulitzer-Prize winning novel Beloved. Oh, that book has a long history of being challenged and banned, too, so as to protect our children from the ‘horrors’ of the truth of our dark past.

A mother in Virginia has become the latest to wield the red pen, demanding that school officials ban the book because it gave her son- a senior in an advanced placement English class- nightmares after reading it.

High school students not only should have the mental capacity to discuss the moral implications of these subjects, but they should be encouraged to do so. Pretending it didn’t exist does nothing to honor the legacy of those who died, and it certainly doesn’t prevent such atrocities from happening again or learning from our mistakes.

If your son can’t handle an AP English assignment without nightmares then maybe they shouldn’t be in the class at all. Perhaps they also aren’t ready for college, nor the very real world of adulthood for that matter.

If a parent objects to their child reading something, that’s all fine and dandy; but it’s a whole new ball game if they think others shouldn’t be allowed to read it either. Who are they really protecting? It’s not the students, that’s for sure. They’re protecting themselves and the rose-colored glasses permanently attached to their eyes that hide the closed mind behind them.

Good literature sparks debate. Controversial books spark debate. Sometimes the debate is on the accuracy or validity of the subject presented, and sometimes the debate is whether or not it’s a good book for children to read and, if so, at what age.

But if the only view of the world outside the classroom window they are allowed to see is watered down, sanitized, and devoid of passion, purpose, and integrity, what quality of education have they really received? If simply reading a book can give them nightmares, then what therapy-inducing horrors will they be unable to face once they finally are allowed to leave their mommy’s side?

Literature is supposed to entertain, inspire, and initiate dialogue. The classroom is there to provide a structured environment for students to learn about these issues, develop critical thinking and debate skills, and apply that knowledge to the situations they will face throughout life. It is imperative to understand the past before you can prepare for the future.

If these overprotective parents are so concerned with the mental frailty of not just their children but everyone else’s, then I better not hear them complain when their sons are 40 years old and screaming upstairs from their little cave in the basement for more meatloaf.

 

For more information on the Banned Books Awareness and Reading for Knowledge project and the complete list of titles covered, please visit the official website at http://www.deepforestproductions.com/BBARK.html

© 2013 R. Wolf Baldassarro/Deep Forest Productions

Banned Books Awareness: “The Glass Castle”

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The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls, is an autobiographical memoir of Walls’ and her siblings’ unconventional and poverty-stricken upbringing at the hands of deeply dysfunctional parents.

The book, published in 2005, pulls on the heartstrings of readers with its resonating and poignant topics; but the parents of a student at Traverse City West Senior High School, in Michigan, are the latest to ask school officials to have a book banned from 9th-, 10th- and 11th-grade courses.

Heather and Jeff Campbell complained about the book and the Traverse City Area Public Schools Board of Education is to weigh in on the matter Monday, December 10th.

It was assigned to the Campbells’ daughter over the summer as part of a freshman honors English course, but her parents objected to the memoir because it includes explicit language and references to child molestation, adolescent sexual exploits, and violence as it recounts the author’s experiences growing up with an alcoholic father and a mother who suffered from mental illness.

On November 20th, the school board’s Curriculum Committee endorsed a recommendation to remove the book from student study. That recommendation originated from a separate committee that was formed to address the Campbells’ complaint, a step required by district policy.

The committee was composed of Jayne Mohr, TCAPS assistant superintendent; Stephanie Long, an assistant principal at West; Genevieve Minor, West’s media specialist; teachers Maya Kassab and Sherry Stoltz; and parents Billie Jo Clark and Jennifer Bonifacio.

Clark read the book before it had been assigned to students and said it offers more than just an engaging story and plans to have her 9th-grade son to read it.
“It’s a book about overcoming the most incredible obstacles in your life,” she said. “It is a book about forgiveness.”

But the Campbell’s don’t think the recommendation to remove the book from 9th-grade reading lists went far enough. Jeff Campbell called it a “minimalist action” in an email to Mohr.

“I never thought I would be somewhere where I would have to say- it’s almost like a book-burning- ‘please take this off the reading list,’” said Heather Campbell. “I just think we need to use some common sense when it comes to our kids. It’s just really inappropriate for 13- and 14-year-olds.”

“I don’t think we’re purists by any means,” added Jeff.

The problem is that they are.

To be honest, it’s perfectly acceptable that the Campbells have objections to the book; but that same right to their own opinion does not give them the authority to force that opinion, and its ramifications, upon everyone else involved.

This isn’t the first time the book has faced the torch-squad, either.

The American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom sited a challenge that occurred in fall 2009 in Santa Clarita, California, where a parent challenged the school district over “The Glass Castle” and “The Bean Trees” being assigned in an honors English class.

In 2010 it was challenged at the William S. Hart Union High School District in Saugus, California, as required summer reading for their honors English program. The complaints included use of profanity, criticisms of Christianity, and accounts of sexual abuse and prostitution. Students had the option of alternative assignments that still meet objectives and teaching goals of the course.

Also in 2010, a high school English teacher in Brookline, New Hampshire, defended her summer reading list choice after an e-mail with a passage from the book depicting sexual abuse was sent to school officials.

Debbie and Steve Pucci, parents of an 11th-grader, wrote an e-mail which included nothing but a two-paragraph excerpt from “The Glass Castle”.

The Pucci’s did not include an explanation with the e-mail and sent the passage out of context to principal Cindy Matte, Superintendant of Schools Susan Hodgdon, and Janice Tremblay, chairwoman of the Hollis/Brookline Cooperative School Board.

During a meeting with school officials that followed a series of e-mail exchanges, Debbie Pucci said, “The language in the book was very offensive.”

“Why this book, with all the great literature out there?” she and her husband wanted to know.

Their answer arrived in a letter dated August 10th that was sent to parents of every student in the AP English class assigned the summer reading.

“I chose the text because it is commonly taught in AP Language and Composition classes as part of a memoir unit,” English teacher Samantha McElroy wrote. “Teachers and critics have praised the memoir for Walls’ honest account of positive life experiences as well as difficult incidents, citing her resilience and success in spite of such challenges as inspirational. Unfortunately, it contains mature content and language that may have taken your child by surprise and made him or her uncomfortable.”

A day later, the Pucci’s reply came: “We can appreciate how all of you must have reacted when you received our e-mail. It was exactly as we had anticipated. However, we can assure you that we were even more shocked to discover this and dozens of similarly offensive excerpts from (our daughter’s) required reading assignment. We too are disturbed and puzzled as to how this required book for AP English could ever be deemed appropriate by any member of our high school administration and/or professional staff.”

Earlier this year it was challenged as part of the tenth-grade English curriculum in the Sade-Central City High School classrooms in Cairnbrook, Pennsylvania because of objections to Walls’ descriptions of abuse such as sexual assault, drunkenness, seeing the family cat thrown from a moving car, having to drink ditch water, and the use of “casual profanity.”

After voting to retain the title in class curriculums, even staunch critics of the graphic accounts praised its theme- overcoming adversity.

It’s been seen time after time when someone objects to these topics wrapped inside literature and fiction and wants to prevent it from being read, but this is historical fact. It did happen. It does happen. It will happen again- no matter how blind the Campbells or the Puccis of the world choose to be when faced with the truth of the world in which they live.

If a student is mature enough to handle the added responsibility of an honors course, then they are deemed mature and capable enough to handle the resulting content in the educated opinion of school officials and teachers, even if you can’t wake up and see that she’s not that pig-tailed, naive little girl sitting on your knee anymore.

Just because the Campbells and the Puccis choose to view the world through the rose-colored lenses of ignorance does not mean that those of sufficient maturity and critical thinking skills can’t absorb and discuss the real world issues brought forth between the pages of “The Glass Castle.”

If one considers their son or daughter still too immature by the time they’re taking high-school level honors courses, that does not mean that every other student is of equally-stunted emotional growth or intelligence.

If that’s the case, then your child really shouldn’t be approved to be in an honors-level course to begin with. The whole point of honors classes in high school is for students who have reached a level in their education where they are ready to engage in college-level analysis and discourse.

When a book comes along that can make a reader who faces a similar situation or past not feel so alone, or provide an eye-opening awareness to those who are in a position to break the chain, then everyone- everywhere and of all ages- should read it.

The memoir has spent 261 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller list and is now under development as a film by Paramount. By 2007, The Glass Castle had sold over 2.5 million copies, had been translated into 22 languages, and received the Christopher Award, the American Library Association’s Alex Award (2006) and the Books for Better Living Award.

For more information on the Banned Books Awareness and Reading for Knowledge project and the complete list of titles covered, please visit the official website at http://www.deepforestproductions.com/BBARK.html

Sources: Wikipedia, Marshall University, Detroit Free Press, Traverse City Record-Eagle, The Telegraph,
© 2012 R. Wolf Baldassarro/Deep Forest Productions

Banned Books Awareness: “Different Seasons”

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Stephen King is one of the most recognizable names in literature. His horror-filled library of tales like Carrie and The Shining are classics on bookshelves and on the silver screen. His intense dramas exploring the human condition, such as The Shawshank Redemption and Stand by Me, are likewise celebrated.

But there’s another accolade that he is, well, king of: he’s the most censored and banned author in American literary history.

A status that was emphasized this week because Rocklin High School, in Sacramento, California, is considering banning a book from its library due to a graphic scene.

“Different Seasons” is a collection of four Stephen King stories including “Shawshank Redemption” and “Stand by Me;” but the page and a half graphic scene in “Apt Pupil” is what could get the entire book banned.

“Basically they’re judging an entire anthology on one story,” said Amanda Wong, a senior at Rocklin High.

Wong is outraged that her high school pulled the book after a parent complained. A school committee decided that a rape scene in “Apt Pupil” was too much for students.

“I thought it was completely wrong of them to do that. I was really upset,” she said.

“Although I understand this parent’s concerns- I wouldn’t want my little brother reading this- I don’t believe it’s the school’s right to take an entire book out of library just over that.”

Wong was also on that committee and was the only one opposed to pulling the book. She was outnumbered, but it didn’t stop her from being outspoken, especially because she’s the only one who read the entire thing.

She decided to take her concerns to the school board meeting, where she made a plea to board members to take another look.

“The instant you do such an action, it opens a big door up. What will we be banning next?” said Wong.

“It should be up to parents and students to make this decision on whether they want to read it, not the district or school.”

The book is back on shelves while a district committee looks at a possible ban.

“Whether it gets banned or not, I’m happy people know,” said Wong.

The first meeting is Tuesday, and they have 30 days to make a decision.

CBS13 in Sacramento reached out to Stephen King about the ban.

“We stand with Amanda Wong on the issue and admire her principled and passionate plea. We hope she and those who share her views are not disappointed,” King’s agent said.

“Different Seasons” had been previously removed from the West Lyon Community Library in Larchwood, Iowa in 1987 because “it does not meet the standards of the community.”

It has also been removed from the Washington Middle School library in Meriden, Connecticut (1989) after a parental complaint; and challenged at the Eagan High School in Burnsville, Minnesota in 1992.

It was challenged at the Cabell County Public Library in 2002 for references to, respectively, oral sex and prison rape scenes in “Rita Hayworth” and “Shawshank Redemption.”

Some of his other popular titles that have been challenged or banned include “It” which was challenged at a Lincoln, Nebraska school in 1987; and placed on restricted reading at the Franklinville, New York Central High School library in 1992.

“The Stand” was restricted at the Whitford Intermediate School in Beaverton, Oregon in 1989 because of “sexual language, casual sex, and violence.”

A brief rundown of his other titles that have been challenged and/or banned are:

Cujo , Carrie, Christine, The Bachman Books, The Eyes  of the Dragon, Firestarter, Four Past Midnight, Gerald’s Game, Night Shift, Pet Semetary, Salem’s Lot, The Shining, The  Skeleton Crew, The Talisman, Thinner, The Drawing of the Three

A middle school in Florida had targeted two of his books, The Dead Zone and Tommyknockers in 1992.

Media outlets were seeking a comment from King at the time. His typical response was to ignore them and toss the phone messages, but on second thought he decided that “the author could not be reached for comment” shtick seemed a bit lame.

He wrote a guest column in the Bangor Daily News, first addressing the kids- his readers.  He urged them to not argue with authority and not to waste their time in protest. Instead, he encouraged them to “hustle down to your library” for a copy; and informing them that John Steinbeck, J.D. Salinger, and Mark Twain all faced censorship.

He then addressed their parents by challenging their parenting skills and hinting that these book burners knew better how to raise their children.  He asked them to consider the matter carefully by reminding them that these censors “don’t believe in democracy, but rather in a kind of
intellectual autocracy.”  He assured them that if they didn’t pay attention and didn’t defend their children’s rights to read, that there would not be much left.  King indicates that if only the fairy tale happy ending stories are left for their children to read, their minds will not be sharpened for the future decisions they will be faced with.

King also addressed the citizens of the towns banning books, that book-banning is censorship, and implying that book-burners are people who feel that the entire community should think and feel as they do.

King does not believe all books should be made available to young minds, saying that schools are “…a managed marketplace,” and books like “Fanny Hill’ or “American Psycho,” probably should not be read by young people, at least not from a school library.

King was very clear on his personal position of censorship.  He doesn’t want to spend his time defending his books in every state, in every school district- he wants to write stories for people to read.

“Do I believe a defense should be mounted? Yes. If there’s one American belief I hold above all others, it’s that those who would set themselves up in judgment on matters of what is “right” and what is “best” should be given no rest; that they should have to defend their behavior most stringently. No book, record, or film should be banned without a full airing of the issues. As a nation, we’ve been through too many fights to preserve our rights of free thought to let them go just because some prude with a highlighter doesn’t approve of them.”

 

For more information on the Banned Books Awareness and Reading for Knowledge project and the complete list of titles covered, please visit the official website at http://www.deepforestproductions.com/BBARK.html

Sources: CBS 13 Sacramento, Prince Rupert Library, Marshall University, The Censorship of Stephen King
© 2012 R. Wolf Baldassarro/Deep Forest Productions

Banned Books Awareness: Here’s to 30 more years of banned books

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Today marks the 30th anniversary of the American Library Association’s Banned Book Week. 30 years of tracking, cataloging, documenting, and reporting attempts to remove books from the shelves of schools, libraries, and bookstores forever.

30 years.

The truth of the matter is that censorship has existed for as long as the written word itself; from the earliest days of chiseling images in stone to the printing press and beyond.

I visited Washington, D.C. while on an ambassador program in high school. During that formative experience I was able to view an exact replica of the United States Constitution (the original was in a vault below to temper its exposure to sunlight). I read it over and over again, basking in the immensity of one of the world’s most influential and brilliant documents ever written.

One of the things that stuck with me is that the First Amendment is pretty clear in its scope. It doesn’t contain any ifs, ands, or buts; it’s an all-or-nothing approach. Maybe I’m just not seeing it, but it doesn’t end with the words “except in the case of…”

Unfortunately there are plenty of people who believe it does.

We’ve seen just about every excuse put forth by the torch-and-pitchfork-wielding pundits of censorship, including religious viewpoints, sexuality, language, racism, and claims that a book is unsuited to an age group.

All of these issues have been dealt with time and again throughout this series, and from the look of things the trend doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. These are nothing more than the thin layers covering a very rotten onion; peel them off and you discover the nasty worm eating its way out from the rancid center feeding on hate, fear, and ignorance.

On an individual level, the claims come about because something in a book has offended someone’s sensibilities. More often than not, these individuals have never actually read the books they challenge- neither in part nor in their entirety. They base their arguments on something they heard or were told about; sometimes just because of the book’s title, a character, a single passage within, or who the author is.

These misinformed and misguided individuals are not always acting alone. Often the seeds of discontent are watered by socio-political rhetoric from the national level, where censorship is fundamentally all about power; ignorance and fear is how that power is maintained.

Books get challenged and/or banned because the ideas presented are at odds with a political or religious world view and are therefore deemed subversive and dangerous by the state. The status quo is threatened by a fresh perspective and that simply cannot be tolerated.

Those with the power to effect social change, therefore, use their power and wealth to further the lack of knowledge among the masses. After all, an intellectually-stunted populous is easier to control than an enlightened one.

Humans think in words- in structured language and cognitive ideas. So if you can control the words and control the flow of information then you can control thought. If you control thought, then the people are but puppets on a string, ambling along in whichever direction the strings take them.

The evidence of this anti-intellectual campaign is seen on an almost daily basis. From people who rant about “Christian-hating jungle cats” to people who can’t grasp the basic biology of where babies come from. Then there is the Text Message generation that believes a semicolon is called a winky face and has no clue that it was designed long ago as punctuation in writing to join two complete thoughts. There’s also my popular Funny Misspellings photo album on Facebook, chock full of random displays of idiocy and poor grammar skills. Here’s the latest goody:

Change the school curriculums, close the libraries, and keep the masses watching Dancing with the Stars and Here Comes Honey Boo Boo. Keep them in the dark and entertained rather than informed and intellectually stimulated, that’s how to maintain control.

Even those who have and seek the power are not immune to the effects of this mindset, as we have seen in Mitt Romney’s now-infamous airplane gaffe.

Maybe if Romney was paying attention in science class instead of bullying a fellow student for having long hair, he might know the general science behind why plane windows should never open or that you don’t feed oxygen to a fire.

Beyond Mitt’s latest blunder, though, lies the clearest argument yet against this trend- if you keep taking science, critical thinking, and logic out of schools then he won’t be the last person to spout ignorance like this on the public stage.

If those with the power are not even immune to the effects of a lack of quality information, then the only outcome will be at least another 30 years of censorship. The question we should all be asking ourselves then is do we want our children raised in a world where we no longer look toward knowledge and the light of the future, but to the dark ages of times past.

 

For more information on the Banned Books Awareness and Reading for Knowledge project and the complete list of titles covered, please visit the official website at http://www.deepforestproductions.com/BBARK.html

© 2012 R. Wolf Baldassarro/Deep Forest Productions

Banned Books Awareness: How will you celebrate your literary freedom?

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A little over one week from now will be the 30th anniversary of Banned Books Week, the bibliophile’s annual celebration of the freedom to read, which this year takes place from September 30-October 6, 2012.

Sometimes we forget in our daily struggles just how important our intellectual freedom really is. Since 1982, more than 11,000 books have been challenged in this country and last year alone there were 326 challenges reported to the ALA’s Office of Intellectual Freedom. Most of these occurred on the local level revolving around such things as offensive language, to violence, insensitivity, religious viewpoints, and sexual explicitness. While the majority of these incidents didn’t result in a particular book being actually banned, some did. The ALA estimates that 60-70% of challenges go unreported; in addition, often these challenges and official censorships occur without the local community involved even being aware until after policy has been decided.

To commemorate this milestone anniversary, the Office for Intellectual Freedom is coordinating a “50 State Salute to Banned Books Week” at the core of the American Library Association’s 2012 Read-Out that will also consist of videos from each state proclaiming the importance of the freedom to read.

A visual representation of the places where books have been challenged in the United States can be seen on the ALA’s Mapping Censorship page. In addition to their Virtual Read-Out, events that are part of the “50 State Salute” can be seen in this State-by-state listing.

One of the most inventive and inspiring ideas for Banned Books Week involves a man who will construct and live inside a prison made of stacked copies of banned books at the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library in Indianapolis for the entire week.

Corey Michael Dalton is a fiction writer and editor with the Saturday Evening Post Society. His week-long project at the Vonnegut Library serves to “protest the treatment of Vonnegut’s masterpiece, “Slaughterhouse-Five,” by a Midwestern school district. Dalton, who also serves on the museum’s advisory board, will be blogging and writing a short story.

We’ve seen, over these many months here at Banned Books Awareness and Reading for Knowledge, just how far some will go to replace the light of knowledge with their narrow and ignorant worldview.

A passage I wrote in a previous article resonates with a renewed sense of purpose this week. “A very disturbing pattern is beginning to emerge among these recent book challenges. One bent on revising history and sweeping the dark stains of humanity under the rug of the world’s collective consciousness. For every book they try in earnest to sweep under the rug, someone will be there to lift a corner and let the air of freedom in.”

What events are taking place at your local school or library to celebrate this important subject? Please share them in the comments below.

I think a far more important question should be what are you doing personally to celebrate your freedom to read?

Don’t just celebrate it in spirit- practice it. Visit your local library or your local bookstore and pick up a book- any book- and read. Explore the worlds of wonder and fantasy, learn about history, start a new hobby, or develop a new skill. The endless possibilities that books provide is the right of all sentient beings.

The video linked below is a piece that I put together to celebrate the 2011 Banned Book Week that showcases some of the titles challenged over the years along with some thought-provoking facts. Above all else- remember to read, learn, grow, and share the knowledge!

For more information on the Banned Books Awareness and Reading for Knowledge project and the complete list of titles covered, please visit the official website at http://www.deepforestproductions.com/BBARK.html

Sources: American Library Association, The Patch, New York Daily News,
© 2012 R. Wolf Baldassarro/Deep Forest Productions

Banned Books Awareness: To Kill a Mockingbird

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Harper Lee’s immortal classic, To Kill a Mockingbird, was first published in 1960 to instant acclaim- despite her editors’ warnings that it probably wouldn’t sell all that well.

In its first year of release it would garner rave reviews by The New Yorker and Time magazines, as well as the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1961. To date it has sold more than 30 million copies and been translated into over 40 languages. It has never been out of print and has become part of the standard literature curriculum in schools nationwide. A 2008 survey of books read by high school students designates the novel as the most widely read book in classes. In 2006, even British librarians placed the book atop The Bible as one that “every adult should read before they die.” In the years that followed, numerous film and stage adaptions would add to its literary legacy.

The timeless tale, long celebrated for its warmth and humor despite dealing with serious issues such as rape and racial inequality in the American South, would be the focus of controversy since first entering the classroom in 1963.

In 1968 the National Education Association placed the novel second on a list of titles receiving the most complaints from private organizations. The top spot belonged to Little Black Sambo.

Racial slurs, profanity, and blunt dialogue about rape have led people to challenge its appropriateness in libraries and classrooms so often that, today, the American Library Association reports that To Kill a Mockingbird is one of the most challenged classics of all time and still ranks at number 21 of the 100 most frequently challenged books of 2000–2009. Even as recently as 2011 and amid 326 other book challenges for that year, it ranks in the top ten more than 50 years after seeing print.

Perhaps the first major incident surrounding the book was in Hanover, Virginia, in 1966 when a parent protested that the use of rape as a plot device was immoral. Several examples of letters to local newspapers- which ranged from amusement to fury- expressed mostly outrage over the depictions of rape. Upon learning that school administrators were holding hearings regarding the book’s appropriateness for the classroom, Harper Lee sent $10 to The Richmond News Leader suggesting it to be used toward the enrollment of “the Hanover County School Board in any first grade of its choice.”

With the shift of attitudes about race in the 1970’s, To Kill a Mockingbird faced challenges over concerns that the treatment of racism was not condemned harshly enough which led to contrasting perceptions between blacks and whites. While the novel had a generally positive impact on white readers, a more uncertain reception was given by black readers.

It was challenged in the Vernon Verona School District in Sherill, New York and temporarily banned in Eden Valley, Minnesota in 1977 due to the words “damn” and “whore lady” being used in the novel.

Shhhh…don’t let them see the classic movie adaptation of Gone with the Wind.

A common reason to challenges brought forth in the 1980’s labeled it a “filthy, trashy novel.” The Warren, Indiana schools dealt with a challenge to it in 1981 because the book does “psychological damage to the positive integration process and represents institutionalized racism under the guise of good literature.” After unsuccessfully trying to ban Lee’s novel, three black parents resigned from the township’s human relations advisory council.

A challenge in the Waukegan, Illinois School District in 1984 was over the use of the word “nigger.” Echoing challenges in Kansas City and Park Hill, Missouri junior high schools were because the novel contains profanity and racial slurs.

It was retained on an extra-credit eighth grade reading list in the Casa Grande, Arizona School District despite the protests by black parents and the NAACP who charged the book was unfit for junior high use.

In one high-profile case outside the United States, school districts in the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia attempted to have the book removed from standard teaching curricula in the 1990’s, stating:

“The terminology in this novel subjects students to humiliating experiences that rob them of their self-respect and the respect of their peers. The word ‘nigger’ is used 48 times [in] the novel… We believe that the English Language Arts curriculum in Nova Scotia must enable all students to feel comfortable with ideas, feelings and experiences presented without fear of humiliation… To Kill a Mockingbird is clearly a book that no longer meets these goals and therefore must no longer be used for classroom instruction.”

In 1995 it was challenged in the Santa Cruz, California Schools over its racial themes and banned from the Southwood High School Library in Caddo Parish, Louisiana because the book’s language and content were objectionable. A challenged in the Moss Point, Mississippi School District in 1996 over a single racial epithet contained in the novel. It was next banned from the Lindale, Texas advanced placement English reading list because the book “conflicted with the values of the community.”

Moving on into the not-so-enlightened 21st century, an unsuccessful 2001 challenge by a Glynn County Georgia School Board member was because of profanity.

It was returned to the freshman reading list at Muskogee, Oklahoma High School in 2001 despite complaints from black students and parents about racial slurs in the text. Next it was challenged in the Normal, Illinois Community High School’s sophomore literature class in 2003 as “being degrading to African Americans” and at the Stanford Middle School in Durham, North Carolina in 2004 because of the word “nigger.”

Challenges at the Brentwood, Tennessee Middle School in 2006 were due to the book containing profanity and “adult themes such as sexual intercourse, rape, and incest.”  The complainants also contend that the book’s use of racial slurs promotes “racial hatred, racial division, racial separation, and promotes white supremacy.”

It was retained in the English curriculum by the Cherry Hill, New Jersey Board of Education in 2007 after a resident objected to the novel’s depiction of how blacks are treated by members of a racist white community in an Alabama town during the Depression and feared the book would upset black children reading it.

Hmmm…did this parent ever read a history book?

In another incident from Canada, it was removed from the St. Edmund Campion Secondary School classrooms in Brampton, Ontario in 2009 when a parent objected to language used in the novel, including the word “nigger.”

We have here a novel set in a time of tremendous social unrest that was The Great Depression. The effects of the Civil War were still rippling through the American South and unless you’ve never read even a basic history book, you’re well aware that the social status and public treatment of most blacks was dismal at best.

This is literature using fiction at its best and mixing it with autobiographical elements to reflect a complex time in American history. Here we are almost 100 years after the events in To Kill a Mockingbird and we are once again facing a bleak and uncertain financial future; rapes still occur on a daily basis; and racial strife continues to permeate many aspects of social interaction. I think what upsets people the most about the themes in this book aren’t that they are in the book but that they did, and still do exist, outside of the pages of fiction in our supposedly modern and very real society. The truth is that these elements hit too close to home for many people and the easiest way to deal with that discomfort is to shove it back into the shadows of fear and ignorance rather than open a book, learn from history, and use that knowledge to create meaningful dialogues in order to examine and better our united futures.

 

Sources: Wikipedia, American Library Association
© 2012 R. Wolf Baldassarro/Deep Forest Productions

Banned Books Awareness: Literary Freedom Update

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Over these many months this column has shed light on some very real current events around the world in which the freedom to read has been challenged by individuals, or groups, armed with torches lit by the flames of ignorance.

This week offers updates on some of those stories.

A few weeks ago, a manager of a Borders bookstore was arrested for selling Allah, Liberty, and Love, a book that she did not know was banned by a religious court in her country.

Borders operations in Malaysia has called on the Home Ministry and the Federal Territory Islamic Religious Department (Jawi) to clearly establish and delineate the decisions to ban books in the country.

The Kuala Lumpur High Court this past Sunday granted Borders leave for a judicial review proceeding against Jawi’s raid, search, and seizure of Irshad Manji’s controversial books at the bookstore on May 23.

Malaysia’s Minister in charge of Islamic affairs, Jamil Khir Baharom, meanwhile, has defended the raid, saying, “The country has laws; we have rules and regulations. We will answer in court.”

His deputy said parties involved should have known the book was banned, since her department had already advised the Home Ministry that it considers the book “un-Islamic.”

Deputy Minister, Masitah Ibrahim, argued, “We did our part, if Borders wants to sue, we will see them in court. She should be responsible for distributing something that’s against Islam.”

COO, Yau Su Peng, in a statement released by the company, said, “The issue here is not about Borders wanting to challenge the order to ban the book made on May 29. The fundamental issue here is about Jawi’s action against a Borders employee to the extent of charging her in court even before a ban had been officially announced.”

The company also says that she is being “grossly mistreated,” Yau explained, “This current event has really broken her down. There are a lot of concerns of the safety of her family, pressures being put on them from around, she kept on saying to me “I understand why I have to go through this, but my family, my friends, not all of them will understand what this is all about, to them I am already guilty.”

–

The works of Shakespeare and novels by John Grisham have been banned in Texas prisons before, where a book-review policy has approved only 80,000 out of more than 92,000 books sent to its inmates, according to database records.

A 5th Circuit Texas state judge this week has upheld a recent book ban by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ), stating that corrections facilities did not violate the First Amendment by banning certain books that describe rape, child abuse, and race relations in the prison system.

Prison Legal News, a non-profit inmate rights advocacy group, filed suit over five books recently banned by the TDCJ.

The books challenged by Prison Legal News are “Lockdown America: Police and Prisons in the Age of Crisis,” “Soledad Brother: The Prison Letters of George Jackson,” “Women Behind Bars: The Crisis of Women in the U.S. Prison System,” “Prison Masculinities” and “The Perpetual Prison Machine: How America Profits from Crime.”

“Women Behind Bars,” which was initially banned in 2008 because it discusses the history of a female inmate who was sexually abused by her uncle, has since been approved after the book’s author and Prison Legal News protested.

A federal judge previously dismissed claims because no inmates requested the books within the specific period, but a New Orleans-based federal appeals court affirmed Friday that Prison Legal News has standing, even with regard to books sent to inmates unsolicited.

Though this particular case involved books sent through the mail, such rules often affect the content of prison libraries as well, such as Connecticut’s 2010 decision to remove violent content, as reported by American Libraries.

“Government interference with one’s attempt to sell or distribute written material unquestionably satisfies Article III’s injury-in-fact requirement,” Judge Edith Brown Clement wrote.

The interest of Prison Legal News “in distributing books to TDCJ’s inmates – which is precisely the type of interest at the core of First Amendment protections – is more than sufficient to support its standing to sue,” she added.

The court rejected the department’s argument that prisoners don’t have a right to receive unsolicited mail. “TDCJ’s argument would carve away a large chunk of the First Amendment’s protections even without so much as an assertion that those protections are in conflict with legitimate penological interests,” the decision reads.

“The general right to receive unsolicited communications free from government interference is not only well-established, it is also quite valuable, a fact that is largely apparent in the prison context. Prisoners have an obvious interest in receiving unsolicited mail from family attempting to reconcile, ministries reaching out to convicts, and those attempting to offer legal assistance, because prisoners would often be unable to initiate such contact themselves,” the 32-page decision states.

According to a report from the Prison Book Program, similar restrictions on legal and medical content, and even all fiction, exist in prisons in Mississippi, Virginia, and elsewhere. The report also cites a prison in South Carolina in which all books are banned except the Bible.

–

The Erie School Board on Thursday upheld its decision to ban a book and a nationally-recognized program on cultural diversity and tolerance: “Ready, Set, Respect!” The lesson plan is endorsed by the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network.

In May, the School Board voted 5-2 to ban “The Family Book,” by Todd Parr, and accompanying materials because a few parents objected to the line “some families have two moms or two dads.”

The ban gained national attention this month after an online petition called for the school board to reverse its decision.

A mixed group of more than a 100 people on both sides of the issue packed the Erie Middle School cafeteria last Thursday.

Board member Charles Brown defended the ban and the board’s choice to use other materials for the tolerance and diversity curriculum.

“We have nothing but the students’ best interest in our mind; but we live in a democracy and a vote is a vote. This board voted,” Brown said.

Brown, along with some fellow board members, suggested the community use the school board election in April if they were unsatisfied with the current board.

Sean Leeds, a 2010 Erie High School graduate who began the online petition, said, “It’s crucial to instill tolerance and diversity in our community’s children during a young age. The only agenda here is to promote tolerance in our children. Exposing children to the reality that is this incredibly diverse world that we live in is not a narrow view; excluding groups from children by trying to protect them from reality is.”

Mindy Jepson, a parent of three children at Erie Elementary, said she supports the ban because she believes it’s what’s best for her children.

“I don’t feel it’s the school’s job to teach family diversity, gender expressions, or any other lifestyles. Parents know their children best and how best to approach these situations. I think ‘Ready, Set, Respect!’ crosses the line when it starts redefining family, males and females.”

Board member Thomas Pons questioned holding a referendum on the issue, suggesting that voters hit the polls in April.

“Do we want to be the town that puts that on there and the stigma that’s going to go with it?” Pons asked.

“The final decision, the final word, will be in the hands of the community. This is not the teacher’s school. This is not the administrator’s school. This is the community’s school,” board member Mike Heun said.

“This matter is probably not over with until April 2013,” Brown added.

The banning of books is an attempt to stop free flow of thoughts, ideas, and information by arguing that these ideas “create confusion, disrupt public order, or are against a religion or way of life.”

It creates a society that is afraid of knowledge. A frightened mind is a closed mind, incapable of seeing the light of a different perspective.

History shows that what was once deemed heretical is now accepted fact. Well, that is unless you still believe the world is flat.

The purpose of education is not the assimilation of bland, tasteless facts, but learning to think critically and ethically with that information. The spread of censorship shows a failure of society to create individuals who can think for themselves and contribute to the public good.

Yes, Mr. Brown, this is a democratic society, and as such, those who are responsible for public administration must always be open to criticism; as citizens, we have the right to voice our opinions on those policies that affect our daily lives.

Not only do these policies state that individuals can no longer take care of or think for themselves, but it shows that the very people we entrust with education have grossly failed at their jobs.

It also puts an unneeded burden on an already-frail economy.

How?

Think about it. Someone has to police the schools, the libraries, the bookstores. Someone has to monitor the public airways.

They have to pay “public servants” to be the thought police, using public tax money that is better spent on roads, infrastructure, social programs, and, yes, better education.

 

For more information on the Banned Books Awareness and Reading for Knowledge project and the complete list of titles covered, please visit the official website at http://www.deepforestproductions.com/BBARK.html

Sources: Bikya Masr, Courthouse News, Library Journal, Clinton Herald, Napperville Sun Times
© 2012 R. Wolf Baldassarro/Deep Forest Productions