Library fight riles up city, leads to book burning demand.
No real comment from me, I think this quote from "Two Cathedrals" will suffice:
DR. BARTLET:
Is this your quote? "If you hide your ignorance, no one will hit you and
you will never learn."
JED:
It's actually Ray Bradbury.
DR. BARTLET:
And you quoted Ray Bradbury?
JED:
Yes.
DR. BARTLET:
In an article you and your friends wrote, condemning professor Loomis.
JED:
For banning certain books from the library, yes.
DR. BARTLET:
He is a professor of literature!
JED:
He banned Henry Miller! He banned D.H. Lawrence.
DR. BARTLET:
Yes.
JED:
"Giovanni's Room" 'cause it's too homosexual!
DR. BARTLET:
Stop it right now. You're a guest at this school.
JED:
I'm a student at this school.
DR. BARTLET:
Jed!
JED:
He banned "Fahrenheit 451," which is about banning books!
**Thanks to The West Wing Transcripts for the quotes!**
No real comment from me, I think this quote from "Two Cathedrals" will suffice:
DR. BARTLET:
Is this your quote? "If you hide your ignorance, no one will hit you and
you will never learn."
JED:
It's actually Ray Bradbury.
DR. BARTLET:
And you quoted Ray Bradbury?
JED:
Yes.
DR. BARTLET:
In an article you and your friends wrote, condemning professor Loomis.
JED:
For banning certain books from the library, yes.
DR. BARTLET:
He is a professor of literature!
JED:
He banned Henry Miller! He banned D.H. Lawrence.
DR. BARTLET:
Yes.
JED:
"Giovanni's Room" 'cause it's too homosexual!
DR. BARTLET:
Stop it right now. You're a guest at this school.
JED:
I'm a student at this school.
DR. BARTLET:
Jed!
JED:
He banned "Fahrenheit 451," which is about banning books!
**Thanks to The West Wing Transcripts for the quotes!**
- Current Mood:
frustrated - Current Music:franz ferdinand - ulysses
Comments
Pardon my french.
If you don't want your kid reading it, keep YOUR kid out of the library! And leave mine the hell alone.
It's so effing simple. Too simple for the religiously-mentally-retarded, apparently.
I'm sorry, I'm a librarian and a reader, and this kind of thing really hits a nerve with me.
I will never forget when I was in fourth grade the uproar a book we were assigned caused because it had TWO curse words in it: damn & hell. I can think of at least ten more offensive words than those just off the top of my head. My teacher ended up having to go through each of our books with a magic marker and blacken out the words. And the book was an historical biography...I'm pretty sure those words were from actual quotes by the actual individual the book was about. Sheesh.
This makes me sad. Maybe the parents should be more worried about instilling their values in their children than to worry about what books are on the shelves at the library. Those people need to get a grip on reality.
I don't know about "get a grip on reality;" they're as entitled as I to believe what they believe. Still --- I think he's right otherwise.
It's not the library's responsibility to monitor my child's reading list; it's mine. Just as it's my responsibility not to penalize my child by keeping him completely away from a library because it offers some material I may find objectionable, but to teach him to make what I think are healthy choices in what he reads.
Eventually I have to trust my child and what I've taught him. Putting the onus for that on the library (or its board) is cowardly and wrong.
My take on the "get a grip on reality" thing was that he meant the parents need to realize that in today's society there is information out there that they may feel is "bad", but the proper way to handle it is to instill proper values in their kids and not try to block the information for everyone else. I don't think he really meant their beliefs are unrealistic, but I don't know...that's just how I interpreted it.
Edited to remove a misplaced apostrophe 'cause I'm anal like that sometimes!
Edited at 2009-07-22 11:28 pm (UTC)
There's the issue, Flips. Apparently unwilling or unable to tell their own child/ren "I don't want you reading this book" -- you know, parenting -- this couple, and those aligning with them, have appointed themselves to decide what other people's kids can read.
It astounds me that a citizen of America, the birthplace of the First Amendment, would advocate burning any book. Would suggest a willingness to align himself with the Nazis.
It was that noted philosopher Michael Hutchence who sang "Don't burn the library 'til you've read all the books."
But I love the line from Justice Louis Brandeis: "Sunlight is the best disinfectant." Bring the words out into the light of day.
There's no finer demonstration of the marketplace of ideas than a Klan rally in a public square ... and anti-Klan demonstrators outnumbering the guys in the hoods 10-to-1. Thankfully, that's how it usually plays out around here.
I've always loved that Brandeis quote. :-)