Burn, Baby, Burn

My parents raised me to be an independent person. Perhaps they did too good of a job because I revolt at the idea of being told what to do. And God forbid if you try to tell me how I should think. Of all the things that stir my outrage, nothing does the job quicker or better than banning a book.

I am an avid reader. I literally devour books, whether they are good, bad or indifferent. Books expand your mind, your perspective, your knowledge, your ability to think for yourself. Books help you understand how others live, how the world affects your own life. And they even help you discern right from wrong, good from evil.

Because my ultra-conservative parents allowed me to read any books I brought home, I never thought about book banning. Yes, I knew about the book burnings of Nazi Germany and I had read Fahrenheit 451, but I somehow thought, as a civilized society, we had moved beyond that. Then I began working with a literature professor who taught aspiring teachers about book banning in America. I was shocked.

Steinbeck's incredible portrayal of Americans struggling during the Dust Bowl days, The Grapes of Wrath, had been banned for its vulgar language and negative depiction of the nation. James and the Giant Peach, a childhood favorite, shows disrespect for adults. And perhaps most astounding of all, Shel Silverstein's wonderfully imaginative A Light in The Attic has been banned for promoting disrespect, horror and violence. Someone banned the author who gave us "but sure as you're born, you'll never see no unicorn"?

Now book banning is rearing its ugly head again. This time, Wesley Scroggins of Republic, Missouri, is waging war on three books: Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five, Sarah Ockler's Twenty Boy Summer, and a book on date rape entitled Speak. The reasons for the ban? They violate Christian principles. Too much swearing, too much sex, things that today's high school student knows absolutely nothing about. Yeah, right!

What Scroggins and his ilk forget is that they, as parents, are the content filters, not the schools. If they don't want their children reading an assigned text, ask the teacher for an alternative. Most are happy to oblige. Any correlation between a book's content and Biblical teachings is irrevelant in the school setting. Again, that is the parent's responsibility to establish and explain any correlation. And finally, banning a book on Biblical principles goes against the separation of church and state. Last time I checked, we do not have a state religion in America.

Being a Christian is fine. Being a Muslim, a Jew, a Buddhist, whatever is fine. Just don't misinterpret the teachings of your religion to do violence to others or to control them. Instead use your God-given brain to think and conduct yourself in a humane, or perhaps godly, manner. You are using religion to exert control over something you do not understand, something you are incapable of comprehending.

And to those who do not wish to be controlled by the small-minded, intellectually stunted idiots in this country, keep on reading those horrible, no good banned and challenged books. Your mind will thank you for it.