i was at the offical banned books week website and they had a list of the books reported as banned or challenged in 2008-2009 across the country. there's just under 500 in the last year. here's the list, it's a pdf file. in the paragraph before you get to the books, it talks about banned and challenged books and there was a great point made that i wanted to point out to everyone:
U.S. Supreme Court Justice William Brennan, in Texas v. Johnson, said, “If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that the Government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable.”
i don't mind if someone doesn't like a book and think it's offensive. that means the book made you think. you don't have to like the book, hell i don't have to like that book. but the minute you start saying that no one should read it and we should take it out of the library or out of a school corriculum, is when it's not right. and to me, that's what banned books week is about. the freedom to choose what i can read. it's my freedom, not anyone else's to dictate. and i'm going to celebrate that freedom.
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1 comment:
I agree with you. I do have to say I wish the book I was fortunate enough to have published (about The Lord of the Rings films) was banned and the media was talking about it, because then sales would go through the roof. ;)
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