Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Banned Books Week September 25 - October 1, 2010

There are many books that I will never read because I know I vigorously disagree with their message. On the other hand, I have no right to stop you or anyone else from reading those books. Not even for your own good. There are books I have told my own children they might not want to read because of the content, but there has been only one book I ever actually removed from the hands of one of them. It was a book from the adult fiction collection of the library, and it was very adult, while my child was only fourteen. A young fourteen at that. Now that he's grown, he's welcome to it.

Would I try to stop someone else's child from reading that book? Not directly, no. I would prefer to speak to the parent and let them know what was in the book that was so objectionable to a fairly libertarian (live and let live) kind of person like me and then step back and let them make the choice for their own family. Would I ever suggest or demand the book be removed from the public library shelves because I personally find it so disturbing? NO NO NO NO NO. And NO again.

I don't have the right to decide that any other adult in the world is too infantile to make that decision for themselves. And that's what the book banners and censors and suppressors believe. That other people are too weak-minded to make their own decisions about what to read.

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