I'm with the Banned

Well, ladies and gentlemen, it's Banned Book Week once again, seven days out of the year when we take the time to celebrate our First Amendment Rights, the power of the pen, and the triumph of reason over hysteria. Time to pull out your Judy Blume, your JK Rowling, your George Orwell, Aldous Huxley, Harlan Ellison, Anne Frank, Michel Foucault, Betty Friedan, Benjamin Franklin, Ray Bradbury, Maya Angelou. In short, this is a good week to think, because if you are a thinker, no doubt you will find some of your favorite authors in this list of authors challenged with censorship.

The United States of America was built primarily on the foundation of personal freedom, beginning with the freedom to speak and think as we like without government mandate. Freedom of the press--our right to publish our beliefs without censorship--is the cornerstone of our freedoms, along with freedom of speech, freedom from government intervention regarding religious behavior and our right to peaceably assemble and complain. Without these rights, we are no longer Americans.

And yet, some people still feel compelled to impose their beliefs on others, without the recognition that the same document that allows them to hold their beliefs without persecution also protects the rest of us from having their point of view forced upon us. Do you oppose gay marriage? Don't have one! Teen sex? Don't screw teenagers! Drug abuse? Just say no! But don't assume that your opposition to certain topics implies the right to prevent others from reading about them. That's freedom of speech and of the press. What you read is your business. What I read is my business. And if you want to protect your child from knowledge of reality, it's your responsibility to accompany them to the library, to watch TV with them, to shelter them. It is not the community's responsibility to hide the world from your child, and it's certainly not the librarian's job. The librarian's job is to make knowledge and information widely available.

Let's salute our librarians this week, thank them for undertaking the thankless task of running interference against the opposition while bringing us the books we love and--thank you freedom of speech--sometimes the books we hate. I'm glad that we live in a world where we can read both sides of the argument and decide for ourselves.

I very much enjoyed this incredible, almost painfully tactful letter from a librarian to a patron aggravated about a children's book that depicts gay marriage. No wonder librarians have always been some of my favorite people. Do yourself a favor and broaden your horizons this week. Read something you wouldn't ordinarily read, and celebrate your American freedom.