Henrietta Hay's Column

CAUTION! DANGER! BEWARE! Somebody in 1998 considered these books so dangerous that they tried to have them removed from library shelves to protect you from them. They are among the books, which were either challenged, or actually censored somewhere in America last year.

Three of my favorite books are on the list: Isabel Allende's "The House of the Spirits," Ann Frank's "The Diary of a Young Girl." and Barbara Kingsolver's "The Bean Trees." Some others challenged in 1998 were: "The Chocolate War," by Robert Cormier, "Of Mice and Men," by John Steinbeck, Maya Angelou's "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," and that old standby "Blubber," by Judy Blume. "Blubber," that long time favorite of kids has been censored more than most, and the chief complaint is that it contains two instances of the word "damn" and one of the word "bitch." Pretty dangerous words in 1999! The latest edition of the annual "Banned Books Source Book," published by the American Library Association contains 1375 titles of books that have been challenged or banned from libraries.

Each year in September Banned Books week is observed nation-wide. The slogan this year is "Free People Read Freely" and in libraries and book stores across the country free people will be reading aloud freely from books which have been banned or challenged The reading at the Mesa County Public Library will be on September 29 at noon. One reader will be missing. Keith Clark, lifelong fighter for freedom of speech, will not be there to read from Thomas Paine's "The Rights of Man." It will be read in his memory.

Jamie LaRue, president of the Colorado Library Association wrote, "...libraries try to stay on guard against censorship, much as firefighters keep an eye out for smoke. Banned Books Week is a Fire Prevention Week for Libraries."

It is hard for rational people to understand challenges to the freedom to read in a free country, but it has been going on for centuries. Caligula tried to ban Homer's "Odyssey" because it expressed Greek ideas of freedom. Socrates was condemned for "corrupting the young" with his ideas of -- yes -- freedom.

The real target of the censor, of course, is the free flow of ideas -- other peoples' ideas. Ideas can be dangerous, but the freedom to read all kinds of ideas teaches us to sort them out, to analyze them, to make intelligent judgments. Dwight Eisenhower said, "Don't join the book burners. Don't think you are going to conceal thoughts by concealing evidence that they existed."

Of course there are some pretty awful ideas and books and theories and pictures and statues out there. But no self-appointed censor has the right to tell me which is awful and which is good. It is my responsibility to figure it out for myself. One thing of interest is that no book has ever been banned for lousy writing.

I hate censorship with a real passion. There is very little about it that I can laugh at, but there are a few reasons would be censors have given that do let me snicker a little.

In "Where's Waldo?" there is a tiny drawing of a woman lying on the beach wearing a bikini bottom but no top. I spent 15 minutes one day trying unsuccessfully to find her in the crowd so I could be offended, but I suppose the censors have sharper eyes.

The basket carried by Little Red Riding Hood contained a bottle of wine, which condones the use of alcohol.

Edgar Rice Burroughs' "Tarzan" was censored because Tarzan and Jane were "living in sin."

"Banned in Boston" was the phrase of my youth. Whenever we heard a book had been so honored we dashed to the local library for a copy to read.

As a life long civil libertarian, my files and my brain are overflowing with material I have acquired over years of battling against attempted censorship. The subjects the censors have attacked have ranged from Communism to free love, to language, to religion to sex. I wonder what will annoy them in next millennium. Whatever it is, we'll still be in there defending free speech.

Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas said, "Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most defeat us."