March 14, 2006
-
EDIT: HB2158 passed last night 60 – 33. My representative Chris Benge voted in favor of the bill…sigh.
THERE’S NOTHING QUITE AS EXCITING AS A GOOD OLD FASHIONED BOOK BURNING
Or…
Why
Oklahoma State Representatives Sally Kern and Tad Jones have introduced House Bill 2158 which would prevent libraries from receiving any state or local funding unless all books with homosexual or sexually explicit subject matter are placed in an “adults only” section of the library and “locked down” so that no one under the age of 17 can view or check-out the materials.
Kern has stated that libraries must comply with what the legislature feels is the prevailing community standards of our towns, and cities, and entire state, in order to receive funding.
At first glance this seems somewhat innocuous, but it is nothing more than homophobia disguised as an effort to “protect the children.” It is censorship in its most grievous form.
They picked three books (all award winners) and pulled individual lines (out of context) from the three volumes (see edit below). They lumped the lines together in a document and are passing it around the press and legislature in an effort to create hysteria over “what our children are being exposed too.”
These books are already in the adult section of the library and even though they were written for young adults, they are not being displayed along side other young adult titles.
“Protecting our children” has come to mean isolating them from any thought, idea, concept, or value that is contrary to our own until they reach adulthood. Isolation is what cults do to new recruits. Isolation is what husbands who beat their wives do in order to control them. Isolation is not protection, it is not love; it is abuse.
If you really want to protect your children, then teach them to think critically. When your child comes across material that you might find objectionable (if you have created an environment of open communication in your home) you can use it as an opportunity to openly discuss your beliefs and values. A child, who has not been taught to examine their beliefs and to think critically, is woefully unprepared for adulthood.
Does this mean I think pornography should be passed out to grade school children? Tuck your bigoted, reactionary dogma back in your pants and don’t be ridiculous. I don’t think we need to pass out pornography to grade school children, but I don’t think a book that won an award from the American Literacy Council is going to permanently scar your child either. Children are not as fragile as we seem to think they are.
“Prevailing Community Standards” is a pretty broad brush. I wonder what Sally Kern would think of the following passage:
“I wanted him desperately. His absence was painful. So I got up, went out and roved the city, hunting through streets and down alleys. I wanted my lover in the worst way! The sweet, fragrant curves of your body, the soft, spiced contours of your flesh invite me, and I come. I stay until dawn breathes its light and night slips away. You’re beautiful from head to toe, my dear love, beautiful beyond compare, absolutely flawless.”
Pretty racy, huh? That’s an excerpt from the fourth chapter of the Song of Solomon (Message Bible). That Solomon was such a perv! I guess we better put him in lockdown.
EDIT: In case you are curious what books the excerpts were pulled from they are:
Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Told from the point of view of a 15 or 16 year old boy. A “Coming of Age” novel. Has been on several recommended lists for teens.
Push by Sapphire
The publisher says: “In an electrifying novel, a black street girl, sixteen years old and pregnant, again, with her father’s child, speaks. In a voice that shakes us by its language, its story, and its unflinching honesty, Precious Jones records her journey up from Harlem’s lowest depths… For Precious, miraculously, hope appears and the world begins to open up when a courageous black woman – a teacher hellbent to teach – bullies, cajoles, and inspires her to learn to read, to define her own feelings and set them down in a diary: to discover the truth of her life. Day after day they go over the pages, translating the illiterate but developing language of Precious’ journals. The learning process itself, as vividly revealed as the most brutal aspects of Precious’ daily existence, is the heartbeat of a novel that will disturb, galvanize, and stay in the mind.”
Fade by Robert Cormier
Cormier was a noted author of books for teens. He wrote The Chocolate War, which has been challenged numerous times throughout the U.S. Fade is an adult title, however. Because of Cormier’s reputation and because the protagonist of Fade is a teenager, the book has been placed in some teen collections.
Comments (24)
Ugh! I get so sick of people liek that. I have a relative who homeschools her children so they will not be exposed to the filth in the public schools (my kids have always attended public schools). She is just waiting for them to trip up. My youngest is graduating, so she will have to acquire a new cause! By the way, my sister and brother-in-law live in your state! LOL
Kathi
Until a writer has been burned or banned (well hopefully not the writer but his/her books), I don’t think he (or she) can claim to have written something of import.
Breasts like leaping gazelles is exactly what I was thinking about before I got to your quote. Very nicely done.
“Children are not as fragile as we seem to think they are.”
This is the crux of several ongoing debates and problems in America. Children do not need the kinds of protection that we are attempting to provide them. They won’t become plane-bombing muzlims if we don’t pray in school. They won’t become bigamist mormon gay AIDS machines if we don’t terrify them with STD information in the second grade. They won’t contract every fatal disease known to man if we don’t put them in a bubble of pharmaceuticals….Like iron in a fire, a little bit of heat prepares you for further clashing. Adversity is the best test of mettle, and other such metaphors.
We can’t continue to try to protect the world from ideologies different than our own. We have to learn how to confront them, and live with them.
I hate to break it to you, but Solomon died. I wonder if Sally Kern had anything to do with it? If shes been playing those damn video games or watching tv I bet she did.
When was the last time you saw anyone under 17 in a library? And as far as song of Solomon goes, when was the last time you heard that sermon in church? Fire and brimstone are the fundementals for keeping people in or out of church. I can’t remember exactley which one we are trying to do. Parents should be the ultimate authority on what their children read, not the state representatives.
Bigamist mormon gay AIDS machines, Jordan cracks me up!
Censorship is a slippery slope.
xoxoxo
Baseless hysteria at its most fearsome. I don’t think there’s anything scarier than banning ideas simply because one individual finds those ideas objectionable. J.D. Salinger’s amazing novel CATCHER IN THE RYE used to be banned. I read it my freshman year of high school and wondered, “Why the heck were they burning this book thirty years ago?!” Protecting the children my arse. Children do not need protection from radical ideas. Children do not need protection from different ideas. Children do not need protection from works of fiction. Children DO need protection from overzealous, homophobic state representatives who have an ulterior motive for banning such books. Sheltering children does no one any favors. It absolves parents of their responsibilities, and children grow up ignorant of world events and issues because Ms. Kern thought that the ideas in such books were objectionable. People like that ought to be thrown unceremoniously out on their ears!
Haha. I loved the last part.
I’m curious which young adult books you are referring to… I’m a Middle School English teacher, so I might teach some of these books. Do you know the titles?
Censureship is just plain wrong headed…if you lock it up, it will become an even biger draw, at least that is how I see it. I think it is about time that schools and politicians just stick to teaching, and let us parents do the parenting, wouldn’t that be a novel idea?
I introduced my eighth grade class to the Song of Solomon and the leader of the Faith Formation program had a field day calling parents to oust me from my volunteer position. Last Sunday, I had a guest pastor who used the word masturbate to my 15 year olds. I’m almost afriad of the phone calls I’m going to get. LOL Not! I remember the book/record burning piles of the seventies. Fighting against adults to keep books like Huck Finn on the shelves. Every generation the argument is brought forward again. We must protect the children. Generally it really means a narrow minded adult wants to approve what I read, see, and hear. If they are my parents, they have a chance. Someone else…forget it. I can and will think for myself. My Nell has read several books on homosexuality. It hasn’t scarred her mind. We discuss the issue.
I don’t know about your area, but around here, the preponderance of bars and strip clubs surely means that my public library should be stocking back issues of Hustler.
LOL This brings back another Oklahoma Memory….remember “The Tin Drum”….let’s not even go there.
So they want librarians to card the patrons? And if the kids have a fake I.D., will a bouncer toss them out?
The_Queen_Bea, I wish you were my teacher.
Move over; this is one soapbox I want to share! I couldn’t have said it better (or as well) myself:)
When I was a kid I read constantly. My parents would occaisionally take books away from me that they deemed inappropriate, but I would manage to read them anyway. I would hide books in my room and read under the covers at night. When I was about 11-12 I think, I got ahold of ‘The Exorcist’. My parents would have freaked! It did give me nightmares, but didn’t scar me for life.
PrimevalWench said: “my public library should be stocking back issues of Hustler.”
I know you’re being facetious, but I rather agree. Perhaps not in public libraries, but most certainly in University libraries. How can any form of cultural censureship exist in a place that is supposed to be a safe place for discussion of all things taboo. Learning necessitates liberty of thought and experience. Censureship invariably produces ignorance.
HA! You people are WAY behind! Alabama tried to do this last year! Some one is asleep at the wheel!
Seriously, the librarians in the state (me included) got up in arms about the issue. It does take people keeping tabs on these ideas and trying to make others see reason. The State Library Association put out a statement, here is the link if you are interested. http://allanet.org/www/allabookresolution.pdf
And the banned books are?
Thank you for the prompt response. Those books sound very interesting…. I might be picking them up over the summer.
My daughter read “the Perks of being a Wallflower” and loved it. I have tried to allow her to make her own choices about what she watches/reads/listens to, and she makes good choices. She chooses what she wants, rather than choosing what is forbidden to her.
When I was in Grade 12 (in Canada), a book called “A Jest of God” was on the required reading list for grade 12. Oklahome would be horrified – there is a short scene in which the main character is kissed by another woman.
Thanks… they are on my to read list.
I forgot to mention that I love the dual-headline. You could have also gone with “Oklahoma, we’s got books now! Uh oh, they was wrote by them homersexul fellers!”
“If you really want to protect your children, then teach them to think critically. When your child comes across material that you might find objectionable (if you have created an environment of open communication in your home) you can use it as an opportunity to openly discuss your beliefs and values. A child, who has not been taught to examine their beliefs and to think critically, is woefully unprepared for adulthood.” AMEN!