BANNED!!!

"A censor is a man who knows more than he thinks you ought to."  - Lawrence Peter
"Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too." -Voltaire
"To limit the press is to insult a nation; to prohibit reading certain books is to declare the inhabitants of that nation to be either fools or slaves."  - Claude-Adrien Helvetius

Yes - three quotes today.  I couldn't choose between them. 

The AARP magazine arrived the other day.  Normally, I glance at it to see who is on the cover and then toss it in the trash, but this issue had an article that attracted my attention - and frankly, made me furious.  The back page of the magazine had a list of books banned by American schools and libraries.  Before I share some of the books included on this despicable list - let me say that I am 100% against banning books of any kind.  If the argument is that we want to protect our children - then I think that responsibility should rest on the shoulders of the parents.  It is not the job of schools or libraries to police our children's reading activities.

 Okay...here are a few of the books included this year and the categories they fall under:

 TOO POLITICAL

• Uncle Tom's Cabin - Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1852
• All's Quiet on the Western Front - Erich Maria Remarque, 1928
• A Farewell to Arms - Hemingway, 1929
• The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck, 1939
• For Whom the Bell Tolls - Hemingway, 1940
• Animal Farm - Orwell - 1945
• 1984 - Orwell - 1949
• Dr. Zhivago - Pasternak, 1957

 TOO MUCH SEX

• Madame Bovary - Flaubert - 1856
• Ulysses - James Joyce - 1922
• The Sun Also Rises - Hemingway - 1926
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Angelou, 1969
• Jaws - Benchley - 1974
• Forever - Judy Blume - 1975

IRRELIGIOUS

• On the Origin of the Species - Darwin - 1859
• The Lord of the Rings Trilogy - Tolkien - 1954
• Harry Potter series - Rowling - 1997-2000

  SOCIALLY OFFENSIVE

• The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin - Benjamin Franklin - 1791
• The Scarlet Letter - Hawthorne - 1850
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Twain - 1884
• Gone With the Wind - Mitchell - 1936
• Of Mice and Men - Steinbeck-1937
• The Diary of Anne Frank - Frank - 1947
• To Kill a Mockingbird - Lee - 1960
• Cujo - King - 1981
• The Color Purple - Alice Walker - 1982

Again - this is only a partial list.  Amazing, isn't it.  I really have no witty response to this lunacy.

Then again...considering the determination and success of AARP to reach all Americans the moment they turn 50...perhaps we should unleash them on the quest to find Bin Laden!!  They have a terrific track record!

Now - go be a rebel and read something off this list.  (Don't start with the "too much sex" category!)