More On Christian Censorship

From the Republic Monitor:

At the Monday night Republic School Board meeting, the four school board members in attendance voted 4-0 to remove one book from the school’s library and another from the school’s curriculum.

The books in question:

The original complaint mentioned three books: “Speak,” by Laurie Halsey Anderson, “Slaughterhouse-Five,” by Kurt Vonnegut and “Twenty Boy Summer” by Sarah Ockler. Although “Speak” made the cut with the school board and will be kept in the library, the other two didn’t meet the policy guidelines set by the board in April regarding book content.

“Slaughterhouse-Five,” which was taught in an upper level English class, but not available in the library, will be removed from the curriculum. While “Twenty Boy Summer,” available in the school’s library, was found by board members to be too sexually graphic.

You know what's funny about this story? See if you spot the funny:

The vote came as a result of a complaint regarding the books, sent by a community member. Although the community member doesn’t have children in Republic's school system, the board addressed the complaint.

Or here:

The only voting board member to have read all three of the books—not just the Cliff's Notes, was Melissa Duvall. Duvall considers her vote against the books not so much about the book, but the school’s policy.

“We’re not making a judgment call on if the book is good or bad, we just want to make sure it’s age-appropriate,” Duvall said.

Ok, I'll tell you. The complaint came from someone who doesn't have kids in that school district and only one of the four board members voting even bothered to read all the books.

Let's focus on the guy making the complaint. The News-Leader has some info:

Wesley Scroggins, a Republic resident, challenged the use of the books and lesson plans in Republic schools, arguing they teach principles contrary to the Bible.

Other other day, Maria, the Other Political Junkie, asked, "What country do we live in again?" I have to wonder.

As I wrote in 2007:

Listen: He wrote in Breakfast of Champions that "we are healthy only to the extent our ideas are humane" and when one of the characters that book, Kilgore Trout, was asked about the meaning of life his response was:

To be the eyes and ears and conscience of the Creator of the Universe, you fool.

Wesley Scroggins, fool.

Banned Books Week

This should please Governor Palin.

This is Banned Books Week, my friends.

And so on Thursday, October 2 there'll be a reading from some of them at the public library in Oakland.  I hosted the event last year and it was illuminating to see what had been banned.

Did you know that one of the "Where's Waldo?" books had been banned?

The Carnegie Library has more details:

The Greater Pittsburgh Chapter of the ACLU-PA, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh and WYEP 91.3 FM will present the 13th annual Banned Books Reading on Thursday, October 2, 2008, at 7:00 pm in the Carnegie Library Lecture Hall in Oakland. Pittsburgh is one of many cities that will celebrate the freedom to read with special events during Banned Books Week (BBW), September 28-October 4, 2008. BBW is observed each year to remind Americans not to take this precious democratic freedom for granted. The “Banned Books Reading” is designed to celebrate the First Amendment and educate citizens about the dangers of censorship. The event features local personalities reading from their favorite banned or challenged books; reading selections will include both modern and classic works.

 Here are some quotations from some previously banned books:

I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free.

More On Palin's Book Banning

This has gone back and forth.

Back in early September, the OPJ blogged about Sarah Palin's book banning proclivities. The by-now completely untrustworthy McCain campaign has denied everything, of course. Governor Palin herself regarded the story as "an old wives tale" This is from ABC:

In the remaining part of Charlie Gibson's interview with Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, to air later tonight on "20/20," she denies ever having tried to ban a book while mayor of Wasilla.

Of course. But when she was on the city council:

But in 1995, Ms. Palin, then a city councilwoman, told colleagues that she had noticed the book “Daddy’s Roommate” on the shelves and that it did not belong there, according to [Laura] Chase (the campaign manager during Ms. Palin’s first run for mayor in 1996)and [former Mayor John] Stein. Ms. Chase read the book, which helps children understand homosexuality, and said it was inoffensive; she suggested that Ms. Palin read it.

“Sarah said she didn’t need to read that stuff,” Ms. Chase said. “It was disturbing that someone would be willing to remove a book from the library and she didn’t even read it.”

Ahh, wiggle room. Republicans just love their wiggle room.

Note to Fred Honsberger: It's nice to hear you on KDKA, my friend. But Fred, recently I've heard you defend Governor Palin with this line of reasoning:

But no books were ever banned from the library.

You have to know that that's not really much of a defense. Here's why: It's pretty obvious that she tried to ban books she (and/or her church) found offensive. Isn't that bad enough? What defender of free thought would even want to ban a book?

Whether she succeeded is another matter altogether. But just trying to get a book banned is sin enough in a free society, don't you think?

12th Annual Banned Books Reading

A reminder.

The Annual Banned Books Reading, brought to you by the good folks at the Pittsburgh chapter of the ACLU, the Carnegie Library, and WYEP, is taking place tonight.

It's free and open to the public.

For some strange and as yet unexplained reason, they've asked me to be the MC.

UPDATE: This was a lot of fun and being master of ceremonies wasn't nearly as frightening as I thought. Did you know that a WHERE'S WALDO book had been banned? Along with the poem "Jabberwocky"? Me neither.

Interspersed in the live readings were video clips of other local Pittsburghers (Bill Peduto and Lynn Cullen included) reading from some other banned material (The Bible, Shel Silverstein and so on).

Read a banned book!