An Open Letter to People who Attempt to Ban Books
Kellie Herson
Issue date: 3/8/10 Section: Opinion
To whom it may concern (namely, any and all invasive, narrow-minded people who attempt to censor the reading materials of others):
I don't know what's up with the tap water in suburban Wisconsin this year, but the state I currently call my own has sprung forth with not one but two attempts at book banning that have, embarrassingly, earned national attention.
The first came out of West Bend last summer, when a concerned citizen wanted all young adult novels that discussed same-sex relationships without including homophobia, hellfire and brimstone removed from the shelves of the public library. The craziness of that attempted censorship could fill about three pages of this paper, so I'll leave the specifics out of this column for the future Googling pleasure of any readers.
The second, and more recent, case comes from Fond du Lac, where a concerned mother wants several young adult books (including the relatively benign, body-image-friendly "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" series) that discuss sex pulled from the shelves at her children's public school.
Um. What? As if it's not bad enough that Wisconsinites have to insist to the rest of the U.S. that we, in fact, don't live inside episodes of "That 70's Show" or go cow-tipping in our spare time, we now have the added burden of assuring the rest of the nation that we're actually, for the most part, progressive and literate.
I can't criticize you for using your right to free speech, failed Wisconsin book banners. But I can use my own to let you know that I just don't understand you at all.
Well, I understand that you want to "protect the children." I feel you on that, in theory. I plan on protecting my potential future spawn from all kinds of things: gang territory, sex offenders, paint chips and Glenn Beck, to name a few.
However, even in my current childless condition, I'm well aware that the burden for protecting my children to the degree I want will rest upon me. (After all, Fox News is what child protections on the cable box are for!) And that there is a lot my children will see and hear that is totally outside my control, so I had better equip them with the independent, intellectual skills required to deal with that.
I don't know what's up with the tap water in suburban Wisconsin this year, but the state I currently call my own has sprung forth with not one but two attempts at book banning that have, embarrassingly, earned national attention.
The first came out of West Bend last summer, when a concerned citizen wanted all young adult novels that discussed same-sex relationships without including homophobia, hellfire and brimstone removed from the shelves of the public library. The craziness of that attempted censorship could fill about three pages of this paper, so I'll leave the specifics out of this column for the future Googling pleasure of any readers.
The second, and more recent, case comes from Fond du Lac, where a concerned mother wants several young adult books (including the relatively benign, body-image-friendly "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" series) that discuss sex pulled from the shelves at her children's public school.
Um. What? As if it's not bad enough that Wisconsinites have to insist to the rest of the U.S. that we, in fact, don't live inside episodes of "That 70's Show" or go cow-tipping in our spare time, we now have the added burden of assuring the rest of the nation that we're actually, for the most part, progressive and literate.
I can't criticize you for using your right to free speech, failed Wisconsin book banners. But I can use my own to let you know that I just don't understand you at all.
Well, I understand that you want to "protect the children." I feel you on that, in theory. I plan on protecting my potential future spawn from all kinds of things: gang territory, sex offenders, paint chips and Glenn Beck, to name a few.
However, even in my current childless condition, I'm well aware that the burden for protecting my children to the degree I want will rest upon me. (After all, Fox News is what child protections on the cable box are for!) And that there is a lot my children will see and hear that is totally outside my control, so I had better equip them with the independent, intellectual skills required to deal with that.
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