Chickensh*ts

Courtesy of Sully, we have this lovely little ditty.

Republican Alabama lawmaker Gerald Allen says homosexuality is an unacceptable lifestyle. As CBS News Correspondent Mark Strassmann reports, under his bill, public school libraries could no longer buy new copies of plays or books by gay authors, or about gay characters.

"I don't look at it as censorship," says State Representative Gerald Allen. "I look at it as protecting the hearts and souls and minds of our children."

Books by any gay author would have to go: Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote and Gore Vidal. Alice Walker's novel "The Color Purple" has lesbian characters.

Allen originally wanted to ban even some Shakespeare. After criticism, he narrowed his bill to exempt the classics, although he still can't define what a classic is. Also exempted now Alabama's public and college libraries.{...}

To put it mildly, I despise people who wound ban books because something about a particular book disagrees with their worldview. It is the most cowardly, chickenshitted thing someone could do, in my humble opinion. One suspects that I'm not the only person who feels this way. But am I? In this particular case one would think that there would be a few courageous souls in the Alabama legislature who would show up to decry this action, just on the principle of the thing, even if their worldview agreed with that of the would-be banner.

Apparently not.

Editor's Note: When the time for the vote in the legislature came there were not enough state legislators present for the vote, so the measure died automatically.

{emphasis mine}

They didn't have a quorum. That's why this bill died. Not because anyone had the guts to stand up and decry book banning, but rather because this was the solution that, I suspect, would ruffle the least amount of feathers.

Chickenshits.

I do not know why I feel compelled to state this time and again, but I'm going to do it again, so LISTEN THE FUCK UP because it gets very tiresome repeating oneself.

Ahem.

Book banning is wrong. It is not what America is about. If you disagree with an author, or the ideas they've presented in a book, DON'T READ THE DAMN THING! But do not under any circumstances think you have the right to tell other people what they should or should not read. That's not your job. You are not allowed to tell people that. People have their own brains. They are allowed to feed their gray matter what they would. If they choose to read something you would disagree with, it is not your job or your right to become their mother and to say they shouldn't have access to that particular book.

Think I'm flying off the handle here? That I'm overreacting to what is, in all reality, a very small thing? Well, I'm not.

Would you like to know what the most frequently challenged books were in 2004? Go here.

Note that on that list is one of Maurice---Where the Wild Things Are---Sendak's books. The former poet laureate of the United States, Maya Angelou's I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings is on that list. Dav Pilkey's marvelously funny Captain Underpants series is on that list. Of Mice and Men, an American classic, by John Steinbeck is on that list. These are not books that are "out there." These are mainstream authors, whose works some idiot considers to be "dangerous" and "inappropriate."

If you want to be even more shocked, go and peruse the list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books, 1990-2000 . Take a peek at some of the books on that list. I'm sure you've read a few. Probably in high school, when it seems everyone is subjected to Flowers For Algernon and The Catcher in the Rye. Take a hard, extensive look at that list and know that some people are afraid and scared by some books that are considered to be classics of American literature. Know that some people are offended by To Kill a Mockingbird or The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. These people don't like the ideas presented in these books. Then realize that since they didn't care for them, they don't think you should care for them either. Instead of being rational about it and agreeing to disagree, instead of saying "to each their own," their answer to the problem is to work toward outright banning of said books. In the process they would impose their thoughts and beliefs upon you.

It's cowardly in the extreme to not let someone make up their own mind about something. It signals that you have so little faith in the merits of your own argument that instead of encouraging debate, and bringing someone over to your side of the argument, you would repress opposing arguments altogether.

It is the equivalent of covering your ears and screaming, "LALALLAALALAICANT'HEARYOULALALALALAALALAICAN'THEARYOU!"

That, most assuredly, is not what America is about.

Posted by Kathy at April 29, 2005 12:52 PM