Banned Books Week

"The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read."
-- Mark Twain


This week marks the 30th anniversary of Banned Books Week. The American Library Association is "celebrating the freedom to read." Exercise your freedom.  Maybe read something from the list of "banned and challenged classics" or "most frequently challenged books of 2011."  

Can you believe that "To Kill a Mockingbird" is still number 10 on the list in 2011?  No doubt it's up there every year.  It's number 4 on the classics list.  The reason:  "offensive language and racism."  Since I can't think of any other possible choices, I'm assuming the "offensive language" is the word "nigger."  We can't even read the word??  Sadly, people do still even speak it, and pretending they don't, or trying to prevent us from reading that word coming from a character in a book, does absolutely nothing to alter that fact. Never in the history of the world has hiding something removed it. The book exposes racism, which is the only way to begin to change something.  Perhaps that's the real reason people want it banned. 

If you haven't read "To Kill a Mockingbird," even if you've seen the Gregory Peck movie (and while Peck was good, Mary Badham owned that movie), do yourself a favor and read Harper Lee's novel.  It's not just a great story, it's beautifully written. 

I can't understand why we still have a system that allows people an avenue to have books banned.  But then, we still have a system that allows people to be detained indefinitely without charge and tortured.  How enlightened we are.