READ BEFORE BANNING
Recently I was talking to someone about education. Before long, he was lecturing me on critical race theory, sex education, Marxism (apparently, it isn’t enough to just smear something as “communist” these days) and something called a “woke” curriculum, which he couldn’t actually define. Then he launched into libraries.
Parents should have control over what their kids read, he said. And if that means banning certain books from libraries, so be it.
I was a little taken aback. “Like what books?”
He rattled off a half dozen, only two of which I’d actually heard of.
“Have you read any of them?” I asked.
Now it was his turn to look shocked. “Of course not!” he said. “Why should I? Everybody knows they’re bad for kids.”
“Well, maybe you should,” I replied. “That way, find out for yourself.”
By now he was turning red and starting to stammer. Then I asked him a far more important question.
“So Bill (his name’s not really Bill), what was the last book you read?”
His stammering stopped, and he just stared at me. “Come on Bill,” I said. “You can remember all those Facebook and Twitter posts. But how about your last book?”
He turned and stormed away. The reason was pretty obvious. Bill couldn’t remember his last book.
Maybe I take all of this differently than most people. I grew up in a family where the act of reading was considered almost sacred. My Father was the first in his family to graduate from high school. I was the second.
My Mother was fortunate enough to complete college. Both she and my father were emphatic that reading was the most important single factor in determining where you ended up in life. Yes, they recommended plenty of books, but their message to me was much more basic.
Read every damn book you can get your hands on.
No matter the author, no matter the subject. Read. And keep reading. Then talk about it.
They trusted that if I read enough diverse opinions by enough diverse authors, I could sort out the contradictions on my own. The local library was my source of knowledge (thank you, Miss Marie Ohlhausen). The idea that any book would be “banned” there was simply out of the question.
The last thing my parents cared about was preventing me from reading.
My, how times have changed.
Recently, armed protesters demanded that an Idaho library remove over 300 books from its shelves. Turns out, none were even in the library.
Florida banned over 50 math books because they were somehow connected to critical race theory. What’s race got to do with math? Beats me. Ask Ron DiSantis.
Closer to my home in Nebraska, a story about a York County farm family was selected by The Nebraska Center for the Book, an affiliate of the Library of Congress, for its “One Book Nebraska” award.
The award was never presented.
Why? Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts refused to issue the necessary proclamation. According to the Governor, the book’s author, Ted Genoways, had been critical of President Trump and was an “activist.”
Activist? There goes any award to Carl Sandburg, Sinclair Lewis, John Steinbeck, or for that matter, anyone describing the teachings of Jesus Christ.
And what did the Governor have to say about the book itself, “This Blessed Earth: A Year in the Life of an American Family Farm?” Nothing. He never read it.
Sadly, this has been going on for centuries. A lot of it doesn’t make much sense. George Orwell’s classic “1984” was banned in the Soviet Union because it was deemed anti-communist. Some libraries in Texas and Florida have taken it off the shelves because they viewed it as pro-communist. Some books have been banned in certain areas for being anti-black, and in others for being anti-white.
Book banners of all political persuasions frequently lift a single passage out of a text, ignore the book as a whole, and demand the book be removed. I’ve read a book many times that vividly describes rape, torture, incest, and murder. It’s called the Bible. Should we ban it?
Sorry, but reading a book by Karl Marx won’t turn you into a communist. Reading a book by Ayn Rand won’t turn you into a fascist. Reading about a gay kid won’t make your kid gay. Reading the Bible won’t make you a Christian.
What books will do is make you think. The rest is up to you.
And if our world has a shortage of anything these days, it’s critical thinking. Instead of removing books, we should be encouraging one another to read and write more.
Recently, the Grand Island (Nebraska) Northwest High School journalism class published an article in their school paper The Viking Saga. The piece titled History of Pride was sandwiched between articles on the school’s FBLA program success and the local skeet-shooting club. Unfortunately, an LGBTQ article was too much for local authorities.
Not only did they shut down the school paper, they cancelled the entire journalism program. So much for critical thinking.
But this is exactly the sort of thing book banners do.
So here’s a suggestion. The next time you might be inclined to ban a book, try reading it first. Then make up your own mind.
It might just surprise you.