"The week of Sept 24 - Oct 1 is Banned Books Week, a time when libraries, schools, and bookstores celebrate our First Amendment freedom to read while drawing attention to the harms that censorship does to our society and our individual freedoms," so wrote Molly Raphael in today's edition of HuffPost.
"...far more often than we may realize, individuals and groups have sought to restrict access to library books they believed were objectionable on religious, moral, or political grounds, thereby restricting the rights of every reader in their community. For example, this summer the Republic (Mo.) school board voted to remove Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five and Sarah Ockler's Twenty Boy Summer from the school library as a result of a complaint that the book 'teaches principles contrary to Biblical morality and truth.'
You can read the entire article here.
And remember, after they ban books, people (like us) are next.
I get nervous whenever I hear about books being baned, or worse still burnt. It is only through testing our ideas, beliefs and actions against those of others that we can know whether they are truly held and of value.
ReplyDeleteThe photo of the Nazis burning books is actually a photo of them burning Magnus Hirschfeld's Institute for Sexual Research (Institut für Sexualwissenschaft)library. The institute was known world wide for the study of gays, lesbians and transgender people.
ReplyDeletePeople 'like us' have ALWAYS been banned by society simply by being judged.
ReplyDeleteSadly, most of that judgement has been negative and that negativity continues today.
Burning or banning books are actions by regimes like the Catholic Church (in the days of the inquisition) and the Nazis who are simply scared of ideas that don't fit their own ideologies. However, ideas are not dangerous, only the use they are put to can be for good or ill.
ReplyDeleteAs a Librarian, I thank you Stana, for posting this and bringing to all our attention of Banned books Week. Intellectual Freedom is a right that always needs defending, every week, everyday.
ReplyDeletedeborah