"Books - Censorship, or Choice?"

 Fifty years ago today, the last U.S. combat troops left Vietnam. It hardly seems possible that so much time has gone by. Troops that were not honored then should be remembered today with thanks and appreciation.

 

Sydney M. Williams

www.swtotd.blogspot.com

 

Thought of the Day

“Books – Censorship, or Choice?”

March 29, 2023

 

“Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all

subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us.

                                                                                                                             Justice William O. Douglas

                                                                                                                             Speech, Author’s Guild Council, NYC

                                                                                                                             December 3, 1952

 

The Left has the annoying habit of blaming the right for transgressions of which they are guilty, from weaponizing government to tabling stories that put them in a bad light, like Hunter Biden’s laptop. Cloaked in bogus virtue, with mainstream media in their corner, they leave no doubt as to the righteousness of their positions. They profess concern for the aged yet are unwilling to address the impending financial collapse of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid – virtually a certainty in the next ten to fifteen years, unless action is taken. They claim to represent the poor yet propose and implement inflationary policies whose victims are the lowest income families.

 

The Left complains about censorship from the right, while they intimidate conservative college speakers, like commentator Charlie Kirk at the University of California Davis, Judge Kyle Duncan at Stanford Law School and causing Mary Eberstadt, author of Primal Screams, to cancel this week’s talk at Furman University. In 2016, public figures as diverse as Barack Obama, Clarence Thomas, and Michael Bloomberg warned about political correctness gone awry. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) agreed: “One worrisome trend undermining open discourse in the academy is the increased push by some students and faculty to ‘disinvite’ speakers with whom they disagree from campus appearances.” Seven years later, the situation has worsened. People have the right to protest, but school and college administrators should promote diversity in speakers and in books, not cling to a partisan political ideology.

 

………………………………………………………..

 

Roughly 200,000 books are published in the United States each year. The Library of Congress holds approximately 50 million titles. The average public library contains about a million titles. According to a January 2022 survey from the Pew Research Center, 75% of American adults said they read at least one book in the past year. The average person, according to that study, reads twelve books a year. While women read about 50% more books than men, they cannot come close to reading everything published. Choices must be made. 

 

According to an article in last Friday’s The Wall Street Journal, the American Library Association (ALA) claimed that attempts to ban books in 2022 nearly doubled from a year earlier: “The organization found 2,571 titles were under scrutiny – most focused on or written by LGBT individuals and people of color.” On a positive note, according to an ABC news report on January 12, 2023, the ALA also said, “most book challenges fail to remove books from classroom or library shelves completely.” Censorship or efforts to ban books from the Left merits less attention. The same ABC report, which consisted of 1165 words, devoted 63 words to Progressive’s efforts to ban books, like Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, and several Dr. Seuss titles, all “in the name of anti-racism or progressive ideals,” books that not too long ago were considered classics of their genre.

 

It is the Left, which purports to be respectful, tolerant, and wise, that has purged “offensive” language from novels by Agatha Christie, Ian Fleming, and others. Such actions raise questions. Will the Bible be re-written to accord with woke sensitivities? Will Shakespeare, Milton, or Locke? Are “drag queen” story hours appropriate for elementary grade school students? Does the altering of words and/or the rephrasing of sentences by “sensitivity readers” and “inclusion ambassadors” provide a more honest rendering of our history? How deep and wide will political correctness take us? Is not our past part of who we are?  

 

When the ALA released their data last week, the Associated Press reported the story, with the headline “Record book ban attempts in 2022.” They wrote of a shift from individuals to conservative organized groups, “targeting a wide swath of books that don’t align with their political, religious or moral views.” Only The Wall Street Journal, of the papers I read, interviewed the co-founders of Moms for Liberty, one of the groups: “We say – write the book, print the book, sell the book; but if it does not have age-appropriate material for school children, don’t put it in school.” That seems a reasonable request. Is that logic present among those who would like to ban books that have been classics for generations? 

 

Censorship, in any form, is bad. Political propaganda should not substitute for literature in schools. Books that serve to divide should be considered carefully, especially among young readers. Books assigned in schools should be age appropriate but, most important, those selected should promote a love for reading. Not all will agree as to age appropriateness, and it will vary from one child to the next. But parents should be involved along with teachers. We make choices throughout our lives, and education should be aimed at helping people make better choices for themselves, their families, their communities, and their country.

 

In books, we have more choices than in most aspects of our lives. I consider myself relatively well-read and have kept track of books read for over twenty years – almost equally divided between fiction and non-fiction. As a general rule, I prefer dead authors of fiction and living writers of non-fiction. However, during those twenty years, three or four million books have been published, on top of the many millions of books already published; so, barely a dent has been made in what was and is available. Nevertheless, we read to learn, and we read to be entertained. The choices we make are important.

 

Perhaps these competing claims are part of a bigger problem – the United States appears to be pulling back from core values that once defined it. A recent poll conducted by the Wall Street Journal-National Opinion Research Center (NORC) revealed that tolerance for others, which four years ago was deemed “very important” by 80% of Americans, had fallen to 58 percent.  As for books, people’s tastes vary; what I read may not appeal to you. You should be able to read Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer, and I should be able to read Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. It is important to have choices; what is more important is that we read.