I’ve read numerous recent articles about freedom-loving Americans attempting to ban books schools and public libraries. I never thought an educated populace in the 21st Century would allow this to be an issue.
History books are full of religious fanatics across the ages banning books and burning them so people would not read them. There have always been a handful of books that someone thought too risqué or dangerous for people, especially children, to read. However, the lists were short and most school librarians were (and still are) careful about how these materials were handled.
Parents decided what books their children could take out from the library, and they monitored their reading choices. What parents did not do was monitor the reading habits of other people’s children. An organization founded in Florida in 2021 ironically calling itself Moms for Liberty, would like to change all that. They want books banned from school libraries so no child can read them. I fail to see the liberty in one parent deciding the morals and values for all parents.
Not content to stop there, they also want books banned from public libraries, so no one of any age can read them. This is freedom?
Conservatives scream about big government interfering with their rights by having laws and policies concerning public health and safety. Yet, they are quite determined to deny many rights of others. What kind of arrogant people think their ideas of morals and values are superior to, or more correct than, those held by others?
They thought wearing a face covering during an pandemic was an infringement of rights, but censorship based on their narrow ideals and worldview is fine? There is a big difference between the personal choices of how you dress, what you eat and what you read, versus issues that impact the well being and security of the whole society. Plagues, violence, economic disparity and environmental disasters require government intervention. Personal choices that do no harm to others do not.
The Amish people have chosen to live a particular lifestyle and live in insulated communities. They coexist next to the modern world without imposing their culture and beliefs on others outside of their communities.
These book banning conservatives are not content to merely live as they choose, they insist that the rest of us must live as they do. If parents want to insulate their children from all ideas that differ from their own, they can probably do that, as long as they keep their kids off the computer and don’t give them a phone that can access Twitter, Facebook, other social media and video games. They should probably limit the movies they watch as well.
Of course, when their children leave home at 16 or 18 years old, they may be quite surprised to find a world outside where people are very different than what they were taught in their cocoon. Nonetheless, parents have the right to make choices for their own children regarding all of those things, but they have no right to make those choices for the children of others.
Somehow conservatives repeatedly cross that line. Most parents understand that children need to be awake and aware of what exists in the real world where they live. Ignorance is not bliss when you are not equipped to meet the challenges of the future. If children are uninformed or misinformed, adulthood will hold more risks and be much harder to navigate.
Books help us all learn about life beyond the confines of our community. They give us the “walk a mile in the other man shoes” experience that is so necessary to understanding and compassion.
Susan Chichetto is a Bath resident.
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