Read Banned Books

Welcome to Banned Books Week, which runs October 1 to 7.

You’ll forgive us if we don’t feel like celebrating — but this is a concept that should have been relegated to the trash heap of history decades ago.

Yet book banning (and, in some places, burning) is on the rise in America, back in fashion and enjoying a resurgence in many parts of the country. The fact is, certain groups of people are so threatened by ideas, thoughts and desires that don’t align with their own that they have taken to removing anything they deem offensive from bookshelves, hoping it will never see the light of day.

It’s not just school libraries anymore. Now, there is a concerted effort by some of these self-anointed groups of morality police to also get books they don’t like removed from public libraries as well.

What does it say about a society when a select group is so threatened by a plurality of ideas that they decide it’s their right to control access for the rest of us?

Librarians who dare to stand up to banning efforts have at times been harassed and threatened, sometimes with elimination of funding, or even violence. But as most librarians (and any parent) will tell you, if you really want to get someone to read a book, your best move is to tell them they’re not allowed to. We all know that forbidden fruit is always the sweetest.

Many of these bans have surfaced under the guise of “parental rights.” Which is reasonable. But if it’s truly a case of parents’ rights, then shouldn’t it be up to individual parents to decide what book is appropriate for their own child? You don’t want your kid to read it, fine. Why on earth do you think you have the right to decide what book is right or wrong for my child? Or to make it unavailable?

The short answer is, you don’t.

So let’s all head to that restricted section and open up our minds and the pages of those books that some in society are so very afraid of.