To the Editor,
The country recently observed “Banned Books Week,” which is of course a complete misnomer. A “banned” book is one that’s been completely removed from circulation, usually by governmental decree.
A picture making the rounds of social media shows a table in a bookstore, a cheerful sign reading “Banned Books Table;” books for purchase that, for whatever reasons, have been removed from libraries. Notice those words: “for purchase.”
“Banned” books that you can buy.
The irony of “banned” books being available for purchase is lost on these mindless hysterics, who clearly misunderstand, and thus misrepresent, the meaning of the word “banned.”
There are no books officially “banned” in America because we, thankfully, have the First Amendment. Banning books is a hallmark of totalitarianism.
“Banned Books Week” exists only to stir up and spread outrage and fear, mostly amongst American leftists, doubtless conjuring images of rapturous, martial 1930s Nazi book-burning rallies, and the blacklisting and imprisonment of authors.
But you know…
Communists ban books, too, and imprison authors. Indeed, Chinese libraries are presently burning books that have been officially banned, for “diverging from Communist thought.” These books will no longer be openly available in China.
Controversial books have indeed recently been removed from schools and even public libraries, but are still available for purchase.
As with countless things, however, it’s only an affront to the culture, when the political right does it.
Then it’s an outrage.
Remember the good old days, when society cherished and protected the innocence of childhood? Good times.
Many books lately removed from school libraries, for example, are those aimed at children and adolescents, with “age-inappropriate” topics, like sexual awakening, homosexuality, and transgenderism.
Many authors of these books use graphic language and imagery to tell their tales. Apparently, it’s okay to some, that children are reading what sometimes amounts to literal erotica. This is why they get “challenged” and removed, to the seething indignation of the political left, for whom cultivating the sexual awareness of children often seems to have been a longtime, ongoing goal.
To “free-thinking” leftists, traditional morality, personal responsibility, and often just simple, basic common sense, equals “oppression.”
Parents have been removed, by police, from School Board meetings, Board members expressing irritation at their insolence, for publicly reading graphic excerpts from some of these books, found in their kids’ classrooms and school libraries.
Again, it’s only wrong when conservatives do it.
Oh, the tyranny!
Let us not speak, however, of the left removing the wholesome, family-friendly works of Mark Twain and Laura Ingalls-Wilder, and even Dr. Seuss of all people, from school libraries, for “outdated racial references.”
Twain and Ingalls-Wilder were expelled, Twain for using the “n-word,” Ingalls-Wilder for unflattering references to Native Americans. Seuss was banished for describing an “Asian man in a pointed hat,” although Asians do, indeed, wear pointed hats.
You’re not allowed to be a product of your era, in these fragile, “woke” days. Neither does context matter.
Elementary and Middle schoolers obviously shouldn’t be reading about people their age exploring sexuality.
Obviously.
Rob Denham
Weirton
This post was originally published on here
