On Thursday, an article was posted on al.com that related to the ongoing debate in my home state, Alabama, around groups that are trying – often successfully – to remove books they find morally objectionable from public libraries – essentially creating their own banned books list – versus everyone who believes that these groups don’t have the authority to control what is put in circulation at any library.
al.com library censorship article.
(I hope you’ll take a moment to read the article. It is both enlightening and deeply distressing.)
As you see, it is a zealot, called Bryan Dawson of 1819 News, at a meeting of the Clean Up Alabama group who was ready to “burn the freaking books.”
While I agree that some content is not appropriate for children of certain ages(as do most reasonable people), I have every confidence in librarians to appropriately assign books – as they always have. Additionally, as this article states, these groups are creating an issue that largely doesn’t exist (nitpicking a few books to fuss about and acting as though it is 1/4 of the library) – and their lists are incredibly discriminatory towards minority groups in a way they cannot deny.
All that said, regardless of the issues they raise with any book or group of books, they should never be given any authority to ban or remove a single item from any library, anywhere.
That the backwards government of Alabama has hopped on board with this – and threatened to defund libraries to appease these groups (without a clue as to what they are actually defunding) – explains why the state is 44th overall in education according to US News and World Report (among other problems).
This group of people cannot be allowed to take over libraries, library boards, and library funding – and then dictate what information is available to everyone based on their preferences and moral standards.
In the same way, I expect that Mr. Dawson prefers reading material that I would find highly disagreeable. However, I would still argue that his interests also should be represented in the public library. That is why the library is so special and important – and must be safeguarded from harm.
It belongs to us all – and no one has to the right to take knowledge and learning of any kind away from another person. Full stop.
Also, this was listed in the al.com article – but the citizen’s group that is dedicated to combatting censorship attempts in the state is Read Freely Alabama. Their website is:
Be well, everybody. Take care of yourselves and each other.
Grace and Blessings.
the autoimmune hippie. 