TEN SILLIEST REASONS TO BAN A BOOK:
1. Encourages children to break dishes so they won't have to dry them (Light in the Attic, by Shel Silverstein)
2. Uses the words "breast" and "bosom" (the poem, Trees, by Joyce Kilmer)
3. If there is a possibility something might be controversial why not eliminate it? (Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, by Dee Brown)
4. Tarzan was living in sin with Jane (Tarzan, by Edgar Rice Burroughs)
5. It's a real downer (Diary of Anne Frank, by Anne Frank)
6. The basket carried by Little Red Riding Hood contained a bottle of wine, which condones the use of alcohol. (Little Red Riding Hood, by Jacob and Wilhelm Grim)
7. One bunny is white and the other is black and this brainwashes readers into accepting interracial marriage (The Rabbit's Wedding, by Garth Williams.)
8. It is a religious book and public funds should not be used to purchase religious books. (Evangelical commentary on the Bible, by Walter A. Elwell, ed.)
9. A female dog is called a bitch. (My Friend Flicka, by Mary O'Hara)
10. An unofficial version of Noah's Ark will confuse children. (Many Waters, by Madeleine L'Engle.)
Absurd? Yes. Tragic? Yes. Not unlike the two sided Comedy/Tragedy mask of drama. You don't know whether to laugh or cry. All these ridiculous reasons have been given in efforts at book banning and many of them have succeeded. On the other side of the mask, censorship poses a major threat to free thought in a democratic society.
The book, Banned Books: if you think we're free of censorship, think again, sponsored by the American Booksellers Association and the American Library Association, lists 1184 books that, over the years, somebody has considered dangerous.
The concept of censorship is quite simple. Gray disapproves of or disagrees with Blue's ideas. OK, that is Gray's right. But rather than discussing it over the back fence, or ignoring Blue completely, Gray says that NOBODY should be allowed to hear or read Blue's ideas. Gray believes that only he is wise enough to know what everyone should think. Therefore everything with which he disagrees is to be banned. He is the Censor, the keeper of the public morals.
The real target of the censor, of course, is the free flow of ideas. Political and religious freedoms have been major targets through the ages.
Caligula tried to ban Homer's Odyssey because it expressed Greek ideas of freedom - dangerous in autocratic Rome. Socrates was condemned for "corrupting the young with," with, yes, ideas of freedom. Thomas Paine, who also wrote of freedom, was indicted for treason in his native Britain.
Religious censorship has an interesting history. Dante's Divine Comedy was publicly burned in France. In 1525 in England 6000 copies of the New Testament translated by William Tyndale were publicly burned. As recently as 1993 The Bible was challenged in Harrisburg, Pa. because, "It contains language and stories that are inappropriate for children of any age."
Fortunately the writers of our constitution were aware of the dangers of censorship and added these fourteen words to the Bill of Rights, "Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech or of the press."
In spite of this, the Censor has been at work here, and is even more dangerous today than in years past. Something new has been added. Sex now is right up there with politics and religion and attempts at censorship have reached new peaks of the ridiculous. The buzzword now is often, "we must protect the children." Certainly we must, but not by censorship of books.
Clare Boothe Luce said it best, "Censorship, like charity, should begin at home; but unlike charity, it should end there."
The world is full of bad books along with the fine ones. Nobody ever censored a book for bad writing. There are books I wouldn't touch with gloves on. But I have no right, patriotic, religious or moral, to deny any of them to you.
Despite the wealth of material which many people, including me, find offensive, the choice is clear. Censorship and freedom cannot exist together. Justice Douglas said, "Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us."