Ban Rolls On

I read that in California, they are banning book bans. I think that's a good thing because the schools and the public libraries should not be in the business of limiting what people are allowed to read. That should be monitored by parents or guardians, am I wrong? As in, if you don't want your kids to read Salinger or Burroughs or Jodi Piccoult, then tell your kids they can't read those authors. But other parents should have the right to allow or disallow their kids to read this and that.

I read in the Washington Post about a woman named Jennifer Peterson down in Spotsylvania, Virginia. Ms Peterson seems to spend an inordinate amount of time reading books and filing objections over them, and attends every school board meeting down there (a school board which contains at least two members who advocate burning books they don't like, so there you go) to harangue the people who are trying to educate children.

Wouldn't it be nice if she reallocated the time she spends making a dent in her sofa reading children's books to teaching children to read? That way, every one could decide what's good for them and what isn't.

I don't believe I need to say here what kind of governments in history have gone on book-banning rampages. And I don't believe that banning "dirty" books is an effective way to keep kids from reading said books. 

I just keep thinking about a man I knew who said that he was not going to allow his children to read about or hear about or see about or talk about sex, because that way, they would never think about sex.

Yeah, that worked.