If you've been cruising the blogs this week, or perhaps your local book supplier, it'd be hard not to be knocked over by the commentary on Banned Books Week. Of course it's important to shine a spotlight on this horrible practice and discuss why it should not happen. In the past I have ranted and discussed this topic as is my desire. However this year I feel as if oftentimes we free speech and expression proponents are preaching to the chorus.
For all our liberal anger this ignoble practice still exists all over the country (if not the world). Book challenges and attempts at censorship are made by individuals from all walks of life, even librarians themselves. I read these stories and marvel at the stupidity of it all. These days I find that yelling and getting angry, like certain conservatives, just ends up creating a lot of noise. Logic and the law needs to be employed in the defense of free expression. Does your library have a transparent process to deal with book challenges? Highlight that. Show your patrons that this is not an issue of us vs. them. Book Banners/Challengers are not necessarily monsters. They are simply ignorant, scared, attention seekers. They see themselves as saviors of the community. They have the ability to file a claim, go thru a process, and have their opinion heard. Just like everyone else. Otherwise it's everyone's free choice to decide what to read, think, and express to others here in the United States. While any book banner has the right to disagree with my opinion, they don't have the right to say it is illegal for me to express it.
However while I am preaching tolerance today, I also feel that we should battle for Free Expression. Free Expression and Free Speech lies at the foundation of this countries ideals. Let us not forget. I have been reading the transcripts of the Howl obscenity trial this past week. For those who need some background: In 1957 Allen Ginsberg's poem Howl was published along with some of his other works such as America. A subsequent obscenity trial was brought against Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who ran City Lights Bookstore, the poem's new domestic publisher. Feel free to read more about it here. I ran up against this wonderful passage from the closing argument of defending attorney Jake Ehrlich:
"Let there be light. Let there be honesty. Let there be no running from non-existent destroyers of morals. Let there be honest understanding. In the end four-letter words will not appear draped in glaring headlights, but will be submerged in the decentralization of small thinking in small minds."
Amen, I say amen. Book Slave.
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